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GENEALOGY
977.8
D74H,
V.2
HISTORY
OF
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress,
Its People and its Principal Interests.
By
Robert Sidney Douglass, A. B., LL. B.
Professor of History, State Normal School, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
Publishers :
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chicago and New York
1912
1143052
^-^
^
History of Southeast Missouri
Charles E. Gilbert. In the thriving little
city of Bonne Terre, St. Francois county, ]Mr.
Gilbert is established in the real-estate and
insurance business, and he is known as one of
the vital and progressive spirits who are put-
ting forth well directed efforts for the civic
and material upbuilding of the village and
county, where his operations in the real-estate
line have done much to conserve this end.
He is secretary of the Bonne Terre Com-
mercial Club, of which he was one of the
organizers and in the excellent activities of
which he has been one of the most influential
factors. He is well known in the county in
which he has elected to establish his home and
here his course has been such as to gain to him
the most unequivocal confidence and esteem, as
well as objective appreciation of his progi'es-
sive ideas and well defined policies for the
insurance of the industrial and commercial
advancement of Bonne Terre.
Charles E. Gilbert was bom in Clinton
county. New York, on the 22d of May, 1868,
and is the elder in a family of two children,
his brother, George A., being now a resident
of Virginia. His parents, George and Sarah
A. (Davis) Gilbert, were both born in the old
Empire st-ate, and the latter 's father, John
Davis, was a valiant soldier in the war of
1812. George Gilbert was reared on a farm
in New York state and was boi'n on the 30th
of May, 1836. As a young man he subor-
dinated all other interests to render his serv-
ices in defense of the Union, and he served
during the major part of the Civil war, in the
New York regiment commanded by General
MeCuUom. He was promoted to the office of
lieutenant and proved a gallant and faithful
.soldier. After tlie war he became a success-
ful contractor and builder at Plattsburg,
New York, and he was a man of prominence
and influence in his community, in which he
held various offices of public trust. He was
a Democrat in his political proclivities, was
affiliated with the Grand Army of the Re-
public, and both he and his wife were mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.
They continued to reside in New York state
until their death, secure in the high regard
of all who knew them.
Charles E. Gilbert very early showed an
insistent predilection for business affaix's and,
in fact, he left school when but sixteen years
of age, much against the wishes of his pa-
rents, in order to initiate his independent
career. The passing years have justified his
course and he has proved one of the world's
productive workers. From the age of six-
teen years until he attained to his legal ma-
jority he was employed in a general store at
Mooers, New York, and he then passed about
one year "on the road" as a commercial sales-
man. He then engaged in the retail grocery
business in the city of Boston, where he re-
mained about three years, at the expiration
of which he sold his business and became a
traveling representative of the wholesale
grocery house of Andrews, Barker & Brinton,
of Boston. Later he was similarly engaged
with a photographic-supply house, and in
1900 he located in the city of Chicago, where
he worked the local trade in the interests of
the Standard Oil Company, by which he was
later assigned to service in Iowa, Illinois and
Missouri. In 1909 he established his perma-
nent home at Bonne Terre, where he has
since been engaged in the real-estate and in-
surance business, in which his operations have
been constantly expanding in scope and im-
portance and to the benefit of the community
at large. He was one of the most influential
in effecting the organization of the Commer-
cial Club, of which he is secretary, and he has
done much to further its high civic ideals and
its policies for industrial and commercial
progress. In politics, while never imbued
with ambition for public office, he is aligned
as a supporter of the cause of the Demo-
714
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
eratic party, and he is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the
Elnights of Pythias and the United Commer-
cial Travelers. He attends and supports the
Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mrs.
Gilbert is a member, and both are valued
factors in the social activities of their home
community.
At the age of thirty years Mr. Gilbert was
united in marriage to Miss Nellie Condon,
and both of the children of this union are de-
ceased, the j'ounger having died in infancy
and Marion at the age of five years. The
devoted wife and mother passed away in 1904,
and in 1909 Mr. Gilbert was wedded to Miss
Ada Evans, of Bonne Terre. They have two
children, Ada Marion and Mildred Earl,
whose winsome presence lends brightness to
the family home.
Fred C. Wood. Though only twenty years
old Fred C. Wood has so complete a knowl-
edge of the mercantile business that he has
attained a position of responsibility which
would be an honor to a much older man, be-
ing manager of the Consolidated Stores and
Manufacturing Company's business in Lutes-
ville. The corporation is one of the strong-
est in the state. No fewer than sixteen stores
are owned and operated by the Consolidated
Store and Jlanufacturing Company in south-
eastern Missouri.
Jlr. Wood was born July 14, 1891, at Mine
La Motte, Missouri. His mother's maiden
name was Lucinda Miller and she, too, is a
native of Missouri. His father, Joseph
Wood, is a miner at Mine La Motte. F. C.
Wood is the second of a family of eight chil-
dren. He received his education in the public
schools of Mine La ]\Iotte and in Frederick-
town.
In 1906 he entered the employ of the Lake-
side Jlercantile Company, and remained with
that firm until 1909. The next year he ac-
cepted a position with W. P. 'Brien of Fred-
ericktown, dealer in gentlemen's furnishings.
Since March 1, 1911. he has had charge of
the Lutesville branch of the Consolidated
Store and Manufacturing Company's busi-
ness.
Mr. Wood was married to Miss Maude
Maze, of Fredericktown. on April 27, 1910.
The M. B. A. lodge counts I\Ir. Wood among
its members.
Robert D. Walls, who is industriously en-
gaged in the prosecution of a calling upon
which the support and wealth of our great
nation largely depends, and in which he is
meeting with pronounced success, has been a
resident of Senath or its vicinity since the
fall of 1874, when he came with his parents to
Dunklin county. He was born, ^March 22,
I860, in Gibson county, Tennessee, on a farm,
and as a boy had few opportunities to obtain
an education. Soon after the family settled
in Dunklin county, Jlissouri, ilr. Walls's fa-
ther died, and a few year later, about 1881,
his mother also passed to the life beyond.
After the death of his mother Mr. Walls en-
gaged in farming on his own account, rent-
ing land not far from his present homestead,
and there lived for about two years after his
first marriage. Buj'ing then forty acres of
his present property on credit, he devoted
himself to the improvement of his land, re-
deeming a farm from the forest. Meeting
with encouraging success in his imdertakings,
he has since bought other tracts of wild land,
buying first another forty-acre tract adjoin-
ing his first purchase, and five years later
adding eight.y acres on the same side of the
road. He subsequently bought eighty acres
on the opposite side of the street, and forty
acres in Honej' Cypress slough, and has now
an estate of two hundred and forty acres, all
of which is cleared, mainly through his own
efforts, as the land was in its pristine wild-
ness when he assumed its possession.
Although the southern part of Dunklin
county, in which Senath is located, is princi-
pally a corn and cotton country, Mr. Walls
makes a specialty of breeding fine stock, for
which he raises the feed, and in addition he
owns a threshing machine and a hay baler,
and in operating these, and in the breeding
of fine horses, he has formed a wide ac-
quaintance throughout southeastern Missouri,
and has a large circle of warm friends.
Mr. Walls has made improvements of note
on his home farm, having a barn ninety-six
by one hundi-ed four feet, the largest in this
part of the state, while his commodious
twelve-room house has its own water works,
and is lighted by acetylene gas from his own
plant. He makes a specialty of raising a su-
perior grade of stock, keeping ten head of
cattle, fifty horses and mules, and forty hogs,
raising sufficient hay and corn for feeding
purposes. Politically 'Sir. Walls is a stanch
Democrat. Fraternallv he is a member of
Senath Lodge, No. 513, A. F. & A. M.; of
Caruth Lodge, I. 0. 0. F.-, and of Senath
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST 5IISS0URI
•15
Lodge, M. W. A. Religiously he belongs to
the Christian church.
]\Ir. Walls has been three times married.
He married first, in 1SS2, in Dunklin county,
Lutie Brooks, who died in early womanhood,
leaving one child, Hettie, who is married and
lives on the home farm. He married for his
second wife Mary Wells, who at her death
left three children, namely: Alvin, Fred and
Charles. Mr. Walls married, November 26,
1902, Belle Keeth, and to them three children
have been born, namely : Pearlie, Lester and
Bertha.
William Bray. Madison county, IMissouri,
has been and is signally favored in the class
of men who have contributed to its develop-
ment along commercial and agricultural lines,
and in the latter connection William Bray
demands recognition, as he has passed prac-
tically his entire active career in farming
operations. At present, in 1911, he is living
retired, but he has long been known as a
prosperous and enterprising agriculturist, —
one whose business methods demonstrate the
power of activity and honesty in the busi-
ness world. He is the owner of a fine farm
of two hundred and twelve acres, eligibly
located two and a half miles northeast of
Frederiekto^vn, where he has resided for the
past forty-two years.
William Bray was Ijorn in Lincoln county,
Tennessee, the date of his nativity being the
2d of November, 1842. He is a son of Andrew
and Elizabeth (Brown) Bray, who came to
Perry county, I\Iissouri, in 1854, and who
settled in iladison county, this state, in 1857,
locating, in the latter year, on a farm near
Fredericktown. where they resided during the
residue of their lives. The mother died in
1S63. at the age of sixty years, and the father
passed to the life eternal in 1895. at the age
of eighty-six years. Andrew Bray was a son
of Peter Bray, a native of North Carolina,
whence he removed to Lincoln county, Ten-
nessee, as a young man, there residing until
his death. Elizabeth (Brown) Bray was born
in North Carolina and \vas a daughter of John
Brown, who. .journeyed to Tennessee in an
early day. Mr. and i\Irs. Andrew Bray be-
came the parents of eight children, of whom
two are living, in 1911, namely, — Iradel, who
is a retired miner and who lives in Euba
county. California ; and William, the imme-
diate subject .of this review. Concerning
those who are deceased, — Joseph, James and
Carroll married sisters and became farmers.
residing in Missouri until their respective
deaths; John was long a merchant at King's
store, Bollinger county, Missouri, and two
children, a boy and a girl, died in Perry
county.
Mr. Bray, of this notice, was twelve years
of age at the time of his parents' removal to
Missouri, where he was reared to maturity, his
early educational discipline consisting of such
privileges as were afforded in the public
schools of Perry and iladison counties. He
grew up under the invigorating influence of
the old homestead farm, in the work and
management of which he early began to assist
his father. As a young man he launched out
into farming enterprises on his own account,
settling on an estate two and half miles north-
east of Fredericktown. With the passage of
time he became decidedly prosperous and he
is now the owner of a finely improved estate
of two hundred and twelve acres, the same be-
ing now operated by his children. He is
strictly self-made and the fine, substantial
buildings in the midst of well cultivated fields
are the best indications of the practical ability
and industry of the owner. Most of his atten-
tion has been devoted to diversified agricult-
ure and the raising of high-grade stock. He
• served for one year as a member of Jeff
Thompson's command. White's battalion, of
the State Guards, in the Confederate army, ac-
quitting himself with all of honor and dis-
tinction as a soldier.
In the year 1868 was solemnized the mar-
riage of ]\Ir. Bray to Miss Rebecca Gosney, a
daughter of Dr. James H. Gosney and ilel-
vina (Burdett) Gosney, long representative
citizens of Fredericktown. Dr. and Mrs. Gos-
ney reared a large family of children, of
whom ]Mrs. Bray is the only survivor, she be-
ing sixty-three years of age, in 1911. Dr.
W. H. Gosney. a brother of Mrs. Bray, was
engaged in the practice of medicine at Fred-
ericktown for a number of years and he was
a gallant soldier in the Confederate army, as
was also J. Franklin Gosney, who died in
young manhood. Mrs. Bray's father was a
native of Virginia, whence he migrated to
Jladison county. Missouri, at an early da}\
and for a number of years he conducted a
drug store at Fredericktown. Mr. and 'Sirs.
Bray became the parents of seven children, as
follows, — Elizabeth is the widow of Frank
Price and she resides at the parental home;
Jennie died as a young girl ; Josie is the wife
of R. W. Howard and they reside on the home
farm: Maggie is ^Mrs. H. C. Horn, her hus-
716
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
band being a blacksmith at Fredericktown ;
James, who operates part of the Bray home-
stead, wedded Elizabeth Gregory ; Willis, who
is teaching chemistry iu the normal school at
Kirksville, Missouri, was graduated in the
University of Missouri, in 1909, and he mar-
ried iliss Virginia Graham, a daughter of the
late John Graham and a niece of N. B.
Graham, a sketch of whose career appears
elsewhere in this volume ; and Ezel died at
twelve years of age.
In politics Mr. Bray is aligned as a stanch
supporter of the cause of the Democratic
party, and while he has never been incum-
bent of any public office he has often been
urged to run for county judge and other im-
portant offices. His religious views coincide
with the teachings of the Christian church,
in whose faith he has reared his children and
to whose philanthropical work he is a gener-
ous contributor. Mr. Bray has lived a life of
usefulness such as few men know. God-
fearing, law-abiding, progressive, his life is as
truly that of a Christian gentleman as any
man's can well be. Unwaveringly he has
done the right as he has interpreted it. Pos-
sessed of an inflexible will, he is quietly per-
sistent, always in command of his powers and
never showing anger under any circum-
stances. In every sense of the word he is well
deserving of the unalloyed confidence and
esteem accorded him by his fellow citizens.
Daniel R. Rench. The history of a nation
is nothing more than a history of the individ-
uals comprising it, and as they are character-
ized by loftier or lower ideals, actuated by
the spirit of ambition or indifference, so it
is with a state, county or town. Success along
any line of endeavor would never be properly
appreciated if it came with a single effort and
unaccompanied by some hardships, for it is
the knocks and bruises in life that make suc-
cess taste so sweet. The failui-es accentuate
the successes, thus making recollections of the
former as dear as those of the latter for hav-
ing been the stepping-stones to achievement.
The career of Daniel R. Rench, who is a self-
made man in the most significant sense of the
word, but accentuates the fact that success is
bound to come to those who .join brains with
ambition and are willing to work. For the
past two years Mr. Rench has been a prom-
inent and influential citizen of Cape Gir-
ardeau, where he has extensive interests in the
Riverside Lumber Company.
Daniel R. Rench was born in Bond county,
Illinois, the date of his nativity being the 8th
of June, 1862. He is a son of Daniel and
Savannah (Woodland) Rench, both of whom
were born and reared in Germany, where was
solemnized their marriage and whence they
immigrated to the United States at an early
day. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Rench became the
parents of nine children, of whom the subject
of this review was the fourth in order of
birth. After arrival in this country the
Rench family located in Bond count}', Illi-
nois, whei-e the father turned his attention to
farming operations and where he passed the
closing years of his life, his demise having
occurred about 1865, at which time Daniel R.
was a child of but three years of age. Being
thus early bereft of parental care and guid-
ance he was placed in the home of an Ameri-
can family to be reared and educated. So
badly was he treated in this family of strang-
ers that he soon ran away from home and be-
gan to shift for himself. His early educa-
tional training consisted of the most meager
advantages, three months representing the en-
tire period of his actual schooling. When
fourteen j-ears of age he began to work in a
lumber yard in Illinois, where he became
thoroughly familiar with the ins and outs of
that line of enterprise. Among other things
he learned bookkeeping and to-day he is an
expert accountant. For a time after reach-
ing manhood he was in the lumber and hard-
ware business at Raymond, Illinois, where he
was a heavy stockholder in the E. R. Darling-
ton Lumber Company. In 1908 Mr. Rench
disposed of his interests in Illinois and came
westward to Missouri, locating at Cape Girar-
deau, where he is now a member of the firm
which conducts a large and prospex'ous build-
ing-material business, under the firm name of
the Riverside Lumber Company. This con-
cern is one of the important business enter-
prises in this city and one of its best assets is
the substantial and wholly reliable character
of its managers. Mr. Rench is possessed of
remarkable executive ability and tremendous
vitality, both of which qualities have been
such important factors in his rise to promi-
nence and influence in the business world of
Cape Girardeau.
In the year 1887 Mr. Rench married Miss
Eliza Costley, who was born and reared at
Raymond, Illinois, and who is a daughter of
William and Maria (Mayz) Costley. Mr. and
Mrs. Rench have three children, concerning
whom the following brief data are here in-
corporated, — Lelia May is the wife of Ed
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
717
Hendricks, of Carlton, Illinois; Walter E.;
and Elma Drueille, who is bookkeeper for the
Riverside Lumber Company.
While not greatly interested in politics Mr.
Rench exercises his franchise in favor of the
Republican party and he is a liberal contribu-
tor to all measures and enterpi-ises forwarded
for progress and development. In a fraternal
way he is affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and in their religious
faith the family are stanch Presbyterians.
Mr. Rench was originally a German Baptist,
a branch of the Lutheran church.
Griffin Watkins. Among the newer cit-
izenship of Washington is Griffin Watkins,
who in the short time of his residence here
has manifested certain traits and ideals which
made him a distinct acquisition from the civic
and social viewpoint, as well as the business,
and it is consistent with the purpose of this
volume that a resume of Ins life and achieve-
ments be incorporated in this volume. He is
superintendent of the Washington factory of
the Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company
of St. Louis, and he has been identified with
the state since February, 1907, when he went
to St. Louis. A few months later he was
placed in charge of the Washington factory
of the above house and has ever since served
them here.
Mr. Watkins is still a young man, his birth
having occurred in Nashville. Tennessee, Feb- .
ruary 13, 1877. He is a son of W. E. Wat-
kins, a farmer of Davidson county of the Big
Bend state. The senior Watkins was born
in that locality, as was also the grandfather,
W. E. Watkins, Sr., who was a pioneer or
at least one of that early company's immediate
successors. The subject's maternal ancestors,
the Cockrills, were likewise early Tennesseans.
The grandather married Jane Cockrill and
their large estate was operated by slave labor,
in fact, the family in ante-bellum days was a
successful and affluent one. The Watkins
family, it is scarcely necessary to state, be-
lieved in the supreme right of the states to
sever their connection with the national gov-
ernment, and Mr. Watkins' father served un-
der the flag of the Confederacy in the First
Tennessee Regiment of Infantry. The mother
of the subject was Miss Jennie G. Griffin
and she and her husband reared their fam-
ily of seven children to lives of industry and
usefulness in the free and open atmosphere
of the country about Nashville, and there Mr.
Watkins died in 1892, at the age of forty-
eight, while his widow survived until 1911.
The surviving children are as follows: Hor-
ton, who is one of the superintendents of
the St. Louis factory of the Johnson, Roberts
& Rand Shoe Company, and also one of its
board of directors; Mrs. W. H. Moulton, of
St. Louis; the Misses Jane, Rachel and May
Watkins, of St. Louis ; Mrs. Frank Miller, of
^Memphis, Tennessee ; and Griffin Watkins, the
immediate subject of this review.
The common schools in the vicinity of the
cities of Nashville and Memphis afforded
Griffin Watkins his preliminary education
and he subsequently took a commercial course
in these places. His business life almost
from the first has been in connection with
the shoe trade and when a veiy young man
he entered a shoe factory in Memphis. His
first employment was of the primary kind
and as an employe in the office and in
the packing-room. He subsequently was
advanced through the different departments,
becoming familiar with the various details,
and, proving faithful and efficient in small
things, he was given more and more to do.
His Jlemphis employers were the Goodbar
Company and he went from them to the
Tennessee Shoe Manufacturing Company
at Nashville, where he worked in the finish-
ing room. From this factory he went to
Eddyville, Kentucky, and took a position
with the Kentucky Shoe Company as super-
intendent of the factory. Leaving there
he came to the Roberts, Johnson & Rand Com-
pany, where his fortunes have been of the
highest character.
Mr. Watkins has never lost his liking for
the rural life of his boyhood and he spends
his vacations in the country, enjoying the
sports of rod and gun and liking nothing
better than indulgence in a little farming.
He owns a small farm in the Missouri river
bottom, near Washington, and his vacation
period finds him engaged in its supervision.
He is unmarried. He fraternizes with the
order of Elks and holds membership in the
Missouri Athletic Club.
Thomas Wilson Cooper. Prominent in the
community both as a representative of that
great basic industry and as a former mem-
ber of the state legislature, in which he suc-
cessfully stood for the best interest of Bol-
linger county in the period included between
the years 1900 and 1904, is Thomas W.
Cooper. Bollinger county is particularly for-
tunate in possessing as citizens a great many
ns
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
native sons, it being generally conceded that
the greatest compliment a man may pay to a
section is to elect to remain permanently with-
in its borders, and among those who iind
the county's charms and advantages superior
to those of other places is the subject. He was
born here on the 4th day of January, 1850,
and is the son of Kiuion and Charity (Rash)
Cooper, natives of Tennessee and Alabama,
respectively. The paternal grandparents
were Raford and Mary (Frasure) Cooper, na-
tives of North Carolina, and they came with
their families to Bollinger county in 1845 and
took up government land. Here the subject's
parents were married and reared a family of
six children, the other members being : Kinion,
of Arkansas; John 21., of Bollinger county,
Missouri ; Amanda Jane, wife of D. M. Robins,
of this county ; Elizabeth, wife of E. JI. IMyers,
and Polly Ann, wife of R. C. Aker, all of
this county.
Mr. Cooper was reared upon the farm and
like most farmer's sons early became fam-
iliar with the manifold labors that make up
an agriculturist's life. The mysteries of
seed-time and harvest were revealed to him
and when not seated behind his desk in the
district school room or engaging in such boy-
ish sports as fell to his share he was learn-
ing to become a farmer. In 1871, the year
in which he attained to his majority, he made
an independent start in life and rented a
farm which he operated. In 1876 he found
himself in a position to purchase eighty
acres of land, near Grassy, Bollinger county.
Of this he eventually disposed and bought
two hundred and fifty-eight acres of land
in this locality. — his present homestead.
This is a valuable property and has been
brought to a high state of improvement by
the diligence and executive ability of its
owner. In addition to general farming, Mr.
Cooper raises high grade stock with great
success and has at present four head of
horses, ten head of cattle, twenty-five head
of hogs and fifty head of sheep.
Mr. Cooper is distinguished for an un-
blemished record as a man and a citizen, and
in mark of the strong hold he has gained
upon the esteem of the community was his
election to the lower house of the ^Missduri
state legislature. He was elected in 1900
and reelected in 1902. and Bollinger countv
was well represented during that time. He
advocates the policies and principles of the
Republican party, having loyally supported
them since his earliest voting days.
Mr. Cooper laid the foundation of an
ideally happy marriage when, in 1871, Miss
Sarah E. Myers, daughter of Ephraim and
Senia (Lyrley) ilyers, natives of Missouri
and Illinois, respectively, became his wife.
They have a family of seven children, three
being sons and four daughters. Mary, born
in 1871, married Jacob Hammock; Charles
jMonroe was born in 1875; Theodosia Isabel,
born in 1875, is the wife of Charles Deck;
Levi Frank, born in 1877, married Isadora
ilcKelvy; T. Andrew was born in 1884;
Rosa, born in 1886, is the wife of George
Smith ; Eva Josephine, born in 1888, married
J. E. Haynes.
Mr. Cooper is a member of the Masonic
order and exemplifies in his own living its
ideas of moral and social justice and broth-
erly love. He is affiliated with the General
Baptist church, and he has been a minister
of this denomination for more than thirty
j-ears past.
David Huddlestox Moore is proud to con-
sider himself a farmer, and it is such men
as he that elevate the farming profession. He
possesses many natural abilities and he has
cultivated each one most carefully, so that
to-day there is no man in the county who is
more universally respected. He has done
much for the county and in particular for his
own to\^^lship. He is not one of the meu who
. believe that any fool can farm ; he knows that
it takes brains to get out of the soil all that is
possible. He has educated himself by study
and reading very largely since he left school,
realizing that knowledge is the most perma-
nent capital a man can have. It is some-
thing that is useful to him in any walk of life,
not only helping him to earn dollars and
cents, but giving him the satisfaction which
comes from simply knowing things. There
are men who are ignorant and do not know
it ; they have a contempt for education. Such
men are hopeless and it is no use trying to
do anything with them. There are others
who know little and are ashamed of it, but
they have not enough get-up about them to
chanee afl'airs. There are others who. like
Mr. IMoore. have lost no opportunities to ac-
Ouire knowledge as they went alons throusrh
life. Such men are bound to succeed, as has
Mr. Moore.
David Huddleston Moore was born at '^"est
Prairie. Dunklin countv. Missouri. Julv 10.
18.32. Hp is the son of Howard and Tabithn
(Reid") jMoore. both of whom were born in
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
'19
Virginia, where tliey were educated and mar-
ried. For a few years after their marriage
they lived in Virginia, coming to ^Missouri in
1830, After spending a year in Grand Prai-
rie they came to West Prairie, settling near
to the place that is now called Kennett. ;\Ir.
Moore bought the place from the old Indian
chief, Chille-de-Kaw, and lived in his house,
which stood about a quarter of a mile east of
the Frisco depot. The old chief stayed about
for two or three years, which naturally led
to there being many Indians in the neighbor-
hood. They lived in houses made of peeled
cypress bark, and roofs made of bark and
the walls built sloping, ilr. iloore finally
entered his land for the fort, going to Jack-
son to the land office. He died on this same
farm in 1863, when more than sixty years old,
his wife having died in 1861, They had eight
children, of whom only one is living now. The
eldest son, Jesse Pulaski, died in Dunklin
county at the age of fifty. William Sexton
died in Dunklin county also at the age of
fifty, John died in Dunklin county when he
was seventy years old. He served as consta-
ble for several years. Martha Elizabeth Jane
married Daniel J. Owens and died in Dunk-
lin county. Susan Claxton mai'ried Thomas
Varner and died in Arkansas. Mary married
Anderson Shepard and died in Dunklin
county. All of the sons were farmers.
David is the only surviving son of his par-
ents. He was the second white child who was
born in Dunklin county and as such he was
awarded premiums at fairs. The first white
child born in the county was Thomas Niel,
who is now dead, David has a vivid recollec-
tion of the Indian squaws who used to visit
his mother when he was a child. They wore
nose rings and tremendous ear bobs; their
faces were covered with paint and altogether
they presented such a frightful aspect that
David was terrified. His father u.sed to tell
stories about the Indians, and in particular
David remembers as if it were yesterday, the
story of one big Indian who would tell in the
morning the game he would kill that day and
when night came he would always produce
the game indicated. The men of his tribe be-
gan to suspect that he was possessed of a
devil or that he exercised witchcraft. They
put him on trial, convicted him and he was
executed in the following way — twelve men
were selected, each with a gun in his hand, six
of which were loaded and six not, the owners
of the guns not knowing themselves whether
the guns thev held were the loaded ones or
not. The twelve men all pulled the triggers
at once on a given signal, while the poor In-
dian ran to escape if he could. Naturally no
escape was possible; he fell dead, no one
knowing whose shot had killed him. His body
was not permitted to be touched, but lay
where it fell until it rotted and was eaten by
worms. David's father saw the body until
it was entirely obliterated. Thus David's
childhood was passed in the midst of scenes
that he has never forgotten. He went to the
school in the neighborhood and then helped
his father on the farm. When he was twen-
ty-one years old he left the home farm and
bought some land a mile and a half north-
east of Kennett, paying a dollar and a quar-
ter an acre for the wild land. He put one
hundred and sixty acres under cultivation
and forty-one years later he sold it at twenty
dollars an acre. It is now one of the best
farms in the county, all tillable land. Some
time after he had made the purchase of this
land he bought six hundred acres of land on
the two mile island, paying five dollars an
acre. Of this he has put two hundred and
forty acres under cultivation and has sold
half of his first holdings of six hundred acres.
Of the two hundred and forty acres which he
retained, his sons are on a part and he has the
rest for himself. He has thus placed about four
hundred acres of the southeastern ilissouri
soil under cultivation. He is now no longer
actively engaged in the management of his
land, but lives a retired life at Kennett. For
many years he operated cotton gins and him-
self built one in Kennett. He also operaled
saw mills very extensively. He was a nat-
ural mechanic and if he had chosen anythijig
in that line as his life work he would have
made as decided a success as he has as a cul-
tivator of the land. It was his pleasure to
set up his own machinery. At one time he
was asked by W. F. Shelton to go to St. Louis
and select an engine for him, at which time
he gave the maker of engines a few ideas that
were entirely new to them and were very val-
uable hints in regard to engines and boilers.
At one time the owner of a new engine said
that his engine must go back to the factory, as
it would not operate. Mr. ]\Ioore looked it
over and in a few minutes had located the
trouble and had the engine in shape for op-
erating. David was always very devoted to
his father and wi.shed to do as the old man
would have him, but at the same time he felt
that he must act according to his conscience.
His father was a secessionist, but David stood
720
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
by the side of his father and cast his vote for
the Union. He was not prepared to go as
far as to believe in freeing the slaves, how-
ever, at that time. His father had owned
slaves and had always treated them with the
greatest consideration. Mr. Moore is not a
Republican but is a staunch believer in the
Union.
Mr. Moore is now living with his fifth wife,
he being her third husband. He was first
married, March 24, 1853, before he was twen-
ty-one years old, to .Clarissa Sparlock, who
left two children, Mary, who died when she
was eight years old. and Wesley, a farmer in
Dunklin county. His second wife was Eliza
Sands, a widow. Next he married Miss Hes-
ter Ezel, who bore him four children : Mar- .
garet, who died young ; Robert, who also died
young; Curtis, who is a farmer iu Dunklin
county; and Laura, who married Thomas
Story, of Kennett. David's fourth wife was
the widow Beckwith, to whom no children
were born. His present wife's maiden name
was Anna Catherine Haggard and she was
born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When she
was twelve years old she came to Dunklin
county with her parents, in 18.58. Her father
was Harland and her mother was Raehael
Shelton before she was married. They set-
tled at Brown's Ferry, where Mr. Haggard
worked as a brick mason. He died at the age
of fifty-one years and his widow also died at
fifty-one years of age. Their daughter. Anna
Catherine, married when she was sixteen
years of age James Bird, with whom she lived
for sixteen years and four children were born
to them, as follows: Harland Bird, who
married Fannie Campbell ; Ellen, who be-
came the wife of David Moore, junior,
nephew of David IMoore of Kennett ; and the
other two children died when they were in-
fants. Mrs. Bird then married Elias Jordan,
by whom she had two children, Lulu, who
died at the age of nine years, and Wesley
Jordan, who now lives at Sacramento, Cal-
ifornia. She then married Mr. Moore, with
whom she has been living for thirty-two years
of wedded life. Two children were born to
her and Mr. Moore: Eva. who married first
Summers Burnett of Kennett and later mar-
ried Gus Knocker of Texas, and Samantha.
who is now the wife of Dr. A. S. Harrison, of
Kennett.
Although Mr. Moore was brought up in
the Methodist ehiirch, his views accord with
those held by the little body of Disciples. He
is a man who has lived a life well worth liv-
ing; he can look back over the years and
think of the many worthy acts he has ac-
complished, of his family relations, of his
social connections, of his work on the land
and he cannot help feeling that it has all
been worth while, that he has lived to some
purpose in the world, having served his
Maker and his fellows to the best of his
ability.
William A. Southern. In all Dunklin
county there is no farmer who is better
known than Will A. Southern, president and
general manager of the Farmers' Gin Com-
pany. Not only is he prominent among the
farmers of the community, but he has a very
high standing with the various fraternal
orders with which he is affiliated in various
important connections. In any capacity he
is a man fitted to lead and to bring things to
pass, as a brief review of his life will clearly
show.
William A. Southern was born in Tennes-
see, that state to which so many Missouri
farmers owe their birth, and he first made
his appearance on the scene August 8, 1854,
on a farm in Wayne county. His father,
Peter Southern, was also a native of that
state, where he received his education, mar-
ried Elizabeth Midkiff and became one of the
flourishing farmers of the section, where he
had a large cotton plantation. When the war
broke out conditions in the south were much
unsettled and the farmers all found their re-
sources greatly depleted, with no prospect
of any immediate betterment. Peter South-
ern lingered in the old home, hoping for bet-
ter times, but in 1876 decided to try farming
in ilissouri. He therefore sold his farm for
what it would bring and moved to Stoddard
county, Missouri, where he bought a tract
near Bernie and lived until his death, in 1889.
He never felt that he had made very much
headway in Missouri and when he died
his widow returned to Tennessee, the home
of her girlhood, where she resided some
years, but is now living with her son Will at
Kennett. Missouri.
All of the early years of William South-
ern 's life were spent in his native state,
where he received his education and as a
young man was married. He moved from
Wayne to Lake county, but he did not feel
that he had made a permanent settlement
there. In 1885 he followed his father to
Missouri, locating near Maiden, and for four
years took practically full charge of the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AHSSOURI
721
farm -wliieli he purchased. "When his father
died he yielded to his mother's solicitations
to return to Tennessee; disposed of the farm
and went back to his native state, where he
engaged in the mercantile business. One
year was sufficient to convince Mr. Southern
that he was not adapted to commercial life,
and again he pulled up his stakes and re-
turned to Missom-i. He had liked the out-
look that he had obtained of the agricultural
possibilities in that state and he felt that it
offered opportunities for success. Three
years after he had left ilissouri he returned
to the state, and in 1892 located at Caruth,
Dunklin countj-. For six years he farmed at
Caruth, at the end of which period he took
up his residence on the homestead which he
occupied until removing to Kennett in
August, 1911. His success has been steady
since that time, so that now he is farming
two hundred and sixty-five acres, two hun-
dred and two and a half acres of which he
owns himself, having practically dug the
whole farm out of the forest and brought it
under cultivation. When Mr. Southern first
came to Missouri there were no patent cot-
ton planters in all of Dunklin county; he
had been accustomed to the methods of rais-
ing cotton as practiced in Tennessee, and he
introduced the cotton planter on Grand
Prairie, by which act he first brought himself
into prominence in the county. In addition
to his farming enterprise Mr. Southern has
a controlling interest in the Farmers' Gin
Company, of which he is the president and
general manager, as mentioned above : he
also owns nine or ten houses and lots in Ken-
nett, as the result of his successful farming
since he came to ilissouri. He is a member
of the Farmers' Union and in connection
with this organization and also through the
introduction of the cotton planter. Mr.
Southern has been all over the county and
there is scarcely a farmer who does not know
him.
While Mr. Southern was living in Tennes-
see he married Miss Sarah Cartwright, of
Decatur county, where the marriage was
solemnized. To this union six children were
born, of whom three are living: Lawrence,
Mamie and Flora. In 1896. soon after he
came to Caruth. Missouri, he married ]\Iiss
Etta Reynolds, to whom were born Beckham
and Lusetie, who are living, besides three
deceased, two in infancy and one who be-
came the wife of John Jones.
Although Mr. Southern is a stanch Demo-
crat, he has never had any aspirations for
political honors ; he is desirous of seeing the
country prosper and is ready to do his part
towarcls that end, so that, with no wish to
thrust himself forward, he is at present the
incumbent of several offices. He is overseer
of roads in District No. 45, which office he
has filled for several years. He has always
been interested in education and has been
director of schools since 1901 and clerk of
schools for the same period. If Mr. South-
ern were not so prominent a farmer we
should think of him as a lodge man, as he be-
longs to seven fraternal orders and has won
distinction in all of them. He is a member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows;
of the Rebekahs; of the Knights of Pythias
lie being now the highest officer in his
lodge; of the ilodern Woodmen of America,
and also the highest officer in that lodge.
He is a member of the Knights of the Macca-
bees and of the Star of Bethlehem, being
general organizer of the latter in Dunklin
county. He is also affiliated with the Tribe
of Ben Hur lodge at Kennett, this being the
largest lodge of the order in Missouri, for
which Mr. Southern is to a large extent re-
sponsible, he having aroimd six hundred
members. Although ilr. Southern has been
in Dunklin county a comparatively short
time, he has, nevertheless, become a man of
prominence, not because he has shown any
desire to push himself forward, but by rea-
son of his strong personality. He is a pub-
lic-spirited man who has identified himself
with the interests of Dimklin county and is
doing all in his power for its improvement.
David Peatt Goff, an enterprising mer-
chant of Flat River, has had a successful
career, and his personal record properly be-
longs in the history of soixtheastern i\Iissouri,
where his family have lived for many years.
He was born at Valley ilines, ^Missouri, Sep-
tember 4, 1872. His father, David Daniel
Goff, who was born in 1837 and died April
21, 1888, was a highly respected citizen. Fur-
ther details concerning the family will be
found on other pages in the sketch of James
L. Goff. Of the nine children, five are living,
and David P. was the fifth in order of birth.
Mr. Golf's early years were spent in Jef-
ferson county, and the family home was
moved to DeSoto from Valley ]\Iiues in 1881,
After completing his education in the DeSoto
public schools, he apprenticed himself to a
machinist and learned and followed the trade
722
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
until 1898. In that year he engaged in the
mercantile business at DeSoto, and was one
of the well known merchants of that town un-
til he established the Goff Mercantile Com-
pany's branch at Flat River in February,
1909. He still has interests at DeSoto. the
store at that place being managed by his
brother William G.
In politics ]Mr. Goff is a Democrat and dur-
ing his residence in DeSoto was a member
of the city council. He is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church. South, and af-
filiates with the Masonic order, the Royal Ar-
canum and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On Christmas day of 1897 he married Miss
Etta Cai-rie McClain, of Valley Mines, Mis-
souri. They have three children : Irene,
Charles and James.
James Houston Doris. Life is a voyage,
in the progress of which we are perpetually
changing our scenes. James Houston Doris
has arrived at a port where he can stop and
look back at the part of the voyage that has
passed. He has seen the good and the evil
that are in the world, the ups and the downs,
and he has learned to be uncensorious. hu-
mane. He has learned to attribute the best
motives to every action and to be charj' of.
imputing a sweeping and cruel blame. He
has no finger of scorn to point at anything
under the sun. Along with this pleasant
blandness and charity there is a certain
grave, serious humor. From this same port
he can see an expanse of waters covered with
a mist. If there are rocks ahead he cannot
see them : if there are whirlpools he hopes to
be able to avoid them by steering his boat
with the same steady hand which has been
his salvation in the past.
James Houston Doris (leaving all meta-
phor on one side) was born at Dixon, Web-
ster county, Kentucky-, Jlarch 3, 1868. His
father, Marion Francis Doris, was born in
Kontuckv', where he .spent all of his life.
He was a farmer and died when James was
about two years old. Mr. Marion Francis
Doris had married Sarah E. Jlorgan. a na-
tive of Kentucky', by whom he had one child.
After his death Mrs. Doris married another
Kentucky gentleman. William Price. Three
children were born to this marriage, all of
whom are living with their mother in Reyn-
olds county, I\Iissouri.
James has no remembrance of his father,
who died when he was only two years old,
but he does remember his Kentuckv home
and the school where he was educated until
he was sixteen years old. At that time he
came to southeastern Missouri, located in
Shannon county, and he took up the study
of law. In 1896 he was admitted to the bar,
practicing in Shannon county, at Winona,
until 1907. He then came to Cape Girar-
deau, where he has been in practice ever
since. He is a staunch Republican and has
been most active in political matters. While
he was in Winona he was mayor of the city
for two terms, serving four years in all. On
November 8, 1910, he was elected prosecut-
ing attorney on the Republican ticket, having
held that position ever since. He has a good
general practice in Cape Girardeau.
In tlie year 1880 he married Theresa E.
Helvery of Reynolds county, Missouri, since
when five children have been born to the
union. Their names are Seth A.. George M.,
ilike L., James H. and Rosco C, all having
been born in southeastern ilissouri and are
unusually healthy and strong. The youngest
is only fourteen years old and weighs a
hundred and fifty pounds without his
clothes. The other boys are equally well
developed.
]Mr. Doris is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and of the Eagles of
Cape Girardeau, being very popular in both
of these organizations. His family is very
well known in this part of the state, i\Ir.
Doris being prominent in all matters con-
cerning the welfare of his adopted state. On
the other hand, he is a man who is greatly
appreciated in the community, both on ac-
count of the things he has done and because
of what he himself is.
William H. Daffron. Plan's first occupa-
tion in the evolution from the barbarian
stage to civilization, and his best, according
to many, since it has ever tended to endow
its sons with physical strength and moral
power, agriculture has in AYilliam H. Daffron,
of Wayne county, one more representative
to prove these points.
He was born in Georgia. February 8. 1847.
the son of another worthy tiller of the soil.
Smith Daffron. He was a native of South
Carolina, his birth having occurred in 1819,
and he died at the age of fifty-three years.
His first wife, the mother of William H., was
Elizabeth (Chasteen) Daffron. a native of
Georgia, and they were also the parents of
iMary E.. now the wife of Hiram Kimes, of
Reynolds county, and six other children, now
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
723
deceased. On the 19th of Juh'. 1859, he was
again married, his bride being Miss Elizabeth
Gilbert, now the widow of "William Stokley,
and a resident of Greenville, and they became
the parents of three children, of whom two
are now living, namely: Isaac N. Daffron,
of Greenville, and Thomas E., of Piedmont,
^Missouri.
In 1857, feeling the impulse to essay farm-
ing in the territory further west, the elder
]\Ir. Daffron removed with his family to Mis-
souri, locating on McKenzie's creek, two miles
north of Piedmont. At that site he purchased
three hundred and twenty acres of land and
an unfinished water power grist mill, which
he subsequently finished and operated. He
was further equipped for life in that he was
a carpenter by trade, and together with an-
other mechanic he is said to have built most
of the first churches and sehoolhouses in that
neighborhood. He is a devout member of the
Baptist church, and used his ballot in behalf
of the candidates nominated by the Demo-
cratic party, whose loj^al advocate he was.
His feon, William H. Daffron, whose name
forms the caption of this brief sketch, was
reared amid the vicissitudes of early Mis-
souri farm life, and received but little op-
portunity to attend the schools of the district.
He was the eldest son and second child in the
family, and unlike the pleasant lot of the eld-
est son under English regimes, the first born
of the frontier farmer early came to share
all of the earnest labors of the farmer who
reaps a worthy harvest. He also learned the
miller's trade, and following his father's
death, while he was still in his eighteenth
year, he managed both mill and farm until
the second marriage of his step-mother, after
which event the family property was sold.
Mr. Daffron, in 1878, married Jane Fulton,
who was born in Wayne county, one mile
southeast of Patterson, the daughter of James
Fulton, from Virginia and an early settler
in Wayne county. Seven children were the
issue of this union, of whom three survive,
namely: Malinda, wife of M. E. Xokes, a
resident of Texas; Elizabeth, wife of Adolph
Nokes, and a resident of Texas; and Alice,
who also makes her present home in the Lone
Star state. Mrs. Jane Daffron died in 1886,
at the age of about thirty yeacs.
]\Irs. Orpha (Warren) Deft, the widow of
William Deft and by him the mother of two
children, namely: JMaud, who became the
wife of Clinton Patterson of Piedmont; and
Blanch, wife of John Stockton of Wayne
county, became the second wife of William
Daffron, and they are now the parents of two
children, of whom they may well be proud,
Nannie and Alphia.
^Ir. Daffron is considered by many tlie best
farmer in Wayne county, and a survey of
his prosperous and excellently developed
farm, comprising four hundred acres of fer-
tile land, is convincing. Despite his earnest
interest in all that may contribute to the wise
management and well being of the county in
^vhich he makes his home, he has never held
public office, since he feels that other men
better equipped by the advantages of educa-
tional training can render more efficient serv-
ice to the community. In his religious af-
filiations he is a faithful and valued member
of the Missionary Baptist church.
Robert L. Yance. The present owner of
the Lutesville Soda Factory is a self-made
business man, of Scotch, Irish, German, Eng-
lish and Welsh descent and an lUinoisan bv
birth. The greatgrandfather Yance, a Ger-
man, came to America before the Revolution
and during his service in that conflict swam
rivers .several times carrying dispatches. He
was the father of eight sons and one
daughter, who settled in various parts of the
United States.
Robert L. Yance v.as born near Yandalia,
Illinois, January 24, 1866. His parents were
A. J. Yance, a farmer and saw mill man, and
Margaret Cavanaugh Yance, both natives of
Illinois. The latter died in 1872, eight years
before A. J. Yance and family came to Bol-
linger county. Robert L. Yance was one of
four children born to A. J. Yance and his
first wife. The others were two sisters, ilary
(Hughes) and Rosa (Bloom), and a brother,
U. S. Grant Yance. Mr. A. J. Yance 's sec-
ond wife also had four children.
Robert L. and the other children were early
thrown on their own resources. While a
youth. Robert resided with his grandmother
Yance and his aunt. Ellen Yance. He began
working as a farm laborer when verv young
and continued until sixteen years old. ' Four
of his uncles were in the Union army during
the Civil war and his Uncle Robert, for whom
he is named, was an officer, acting as captain
when killed at Yieksburg.
In 1886 Mr. Yance purchased a saw mill.
This he has continued to operate in various
sections of the county up to the present time.
Since 1901 he has been a farmer and he is the
owner of one hundred and twenty acres of
■24
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
creek-bottom land five miles west of Glen
Allen. In April, 1911, he purchased the
Lutesville Soda Factory, which he operates
with the assistance of his sons. The factory
has a capacity of one hundred cases per day
and is regarded as one of the best enterprises
in Lutesville.
In October, 1884-. Mr. Vance and Miss
Nellie McGregor were united in marriage.
Miss McGregor was the daughter of Preston
and Mary McGregor, of Kentucky. She was
born in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Vance's family
number eight children. Grace, the eldest,
born in 1887, is now Mrs. Whitener. Ben-
jamin L., born May 4, 1889, was married No-
vember 6, 1910, to Adelia Cullison, of Bol-
linger county, daughter of Abner Cullison,
of Wayne county. Robert L. Vance has an
interest in one hundred and eighty acres of
land seven miles southwest of Zalma. He
also assists in the management of the soda
factory. In a fraternal way he is a member
of the" Modern Brotherhood. The other chil-
dren are Claude, born April 13, 1891. Rose,
born in March. 1893; Lorah, in July, 1895;
Versie, in 1897; Helen Gould and Gladys,
both of whose birthdays are in September, the
former was born in 1901, the latter in 1905.
Dan W. Roland. An esteemed and highly
respected resident of Senath, D. W. Roland
is actively associated with the advancement
of the industrial interests of this part of
Dunklin county, owning and operating the
only roller mill in the place. A native of
Kentucky, he was born on a farm in McLean
county, in 1858. In 1859 his parents moved
to Jacksonport, Arkansas, where his father
was in business until interrupted by the
breaking out of the Civil war, when he en-
listed in the Confederate army. At the close
of the war, his wife having in the meantime
died, he moved back to his old home in Ken-
tucky.
Brought up on the Kentucky farra_, Dan
"W. Roland had but limited opportunities for
obtaining book knowledge of any kind.
Leaving home at the ase of eighteen years,
he spent a year on a farm in Arkansas, in
Grant county, but, not satisfied with his
work, he went back to Kentucky, where for a
while he attended school. After his mar-
riage, ]\Ir. Roland was at first bridge carpen-
ter on a railroad, after which he for two
years successfully engaged in the i;ndertak-
ing and furniture business in Hopkins
county, Kentucky. Entering then the em-
ploy of the Louisville CofSn Company, he
was commercial salesman for eleven and one-
half 3'eai-s for that fii-m, his territory extend-
ing into ilississippi, and as far east as Balti-
more, 3Iaryland. Although he was held in
high favor by the firm and his work was ex-
ceedingly remunerative, Mr. Roland tired of
being on the road, and resigned his position
-\vith the company, and on June 12, 1903,
located in Senath, Missouri. For four years
thereafter he was head sawyer for G. L.
Roper, during which time he purchased the
lot on which his present plant stands, it be-
ing one hundred by one hundred and sixty-
seven feet. On giving up work with Mr.
Roper, he built his present mill in Senath,
and also leased another mill, which he ran
for two years, clearing enough mone.y in its
operation to equip his present mill. Mr. Ro-
land's plant handles corn only, and has a
capacity of six hundred bushels a day. He
is carrying on an extensive business, which
is increasing each year, being the largest in
the spring, and he is constantlj' adding new
machinery of the latest approved kinds for
milling, and in filling his numerous orders
employs one man besides himself, both being
kept busy. From April, 1904, to April, 1906,
Mr. Roland served as the mayor of Senath.
In Kentucky, in 1880, he was married to
Carrie T. Toombs, and to them two children
were born, Ganza T. and Walter H., neither
of whom are now living. Fraternally Mr.
Roland is a member of Senath Lodge, No.
513. A. F. & A. M.; of Helm Chapter, No.
117, R. A. M., of Kennett ; of Campbell Coun-
cil, R. & S. M. ; of ]\Ialden Commandery, No.
61, K. T.; and of Senath Lodge, W. 0. W.
Wliile living in Kentucky, Mr. Roland united
with the Cumberland Presbyterian church at
]\Iadisonville. which was organized by men
who were strong believers in slavery, and for
many years he was an active worker in the
church.
William H. Blanton. Among the promi-
nent and influential agriculturists of Madison
county, Missouri, who have achieved a splen-
did material success in this world, William
H. Blanton is honored and esteemed as a
business man of fair and honorable methods
and as a citizen of intrinsic loyalty and public
spirit. In addition to a fine farm of one
hundred and sixty acres, just north of Fred-
ericktown. he is the owner of other valuable
property holdings in this county, and he is
also financially interested in the Bank of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
725
Fredericktowu, the ^lereliants Hotel Build-
ing and the Schwaner-But'ord Company, of
Fredericktown. He was born in Ii'on county,
Missouri, on the 6th of November, 1858, and
he is a son of Benjamin F. and Ailsie (Berry-
man) Blanton, the latter of whom was a niece
of the distinguished Rev. J. C. Berryman,
former president of Marvin Collegiate Insti-
tute, now Marvin College. The father was
born in Tennessee, in 1828, and he was called
to eternal rest in 1880, at the comparativel.y
early age of fifty-two years. His parents
migrated to ilissou'ri early in the nineteenth
century, settling in the northern part of the
state, in Henry county, where both resided
until their respective deaths. As a young
man Benjamin F. Blanton located in Iron
county, Missouri, prior to his marriage. He
was the owner of a large estate in the south-
ern part of Madison county and for a number
of years operated a fai-ra on the big St.
Francois river. Eventually disposing of the
latter estate, he opened a large farm five miles
distant from Ironton. where he passed the
closing years of his life. He was a stanch
Democrat in his political proclivities and in a
fraternal waj' was affiliated witti the time-
honored Masonic order. His old farm is still
in the family, being now owned and oper-
ated by a son, J. T. Blanton. It was origin-
ally wild timber land but is today recognized
as one of the finest farms in the comity.
Ailsie (Berryman) Blanton was born in ilad-
ison county. Missouri, in 1825. and she died
in 1870, at the age of forty-five years. Her
parents were Virginians by birth and came
to this state in the pioneer days. -Josiah
Berryman, her father, was engaged in copper
mining for a number of years at Mine La
Motte and elsewhere. In 1849 he made the
perilous trip overland to California, in quest
of gold, and on his second trip to the new
Eldorado, in 1850. he was taken ill and died.
Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Banton became the par-
ents of nine children, concerning whom the
following brief record is here offered. — -T.
Thompson resides in Iron county: ^Moman
E. maintains his home near Fredericktown :
Jennie is Mrs. Jliehael DeGuire, a sketch of
whose husband's life appears elsewhere in
this work; Alice died at the age of sixteen
years; Millie was the wife of Jerome Watts
at the time of her demise; Fannie, who mar-
ried Mr. Kincaid and reared six children, died
when past forty .vears of ase: Carter died
at the age of four years; James died in his
fifty-second vear. in 1907. in Colorado, where
he was a silver miner ; and AVilliam H. is the
immediate subject of this review.
William H. Blanton passed his boyhood
aiid early youth in Iron county and at the
age of sixteen years he became interested in
mining operations, engaging in that line of
enterprise for thirteen years in Colorado. In
1889 he came to Fredericktown, where he be-
came a member of the De Guire Milling Com-
pany, with which concern he was connected
until 1904. In the latter year he removed to
his fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres,
just north of town, and there he has since
resided. His estate is fitted out with all the
most modern improvements and is one of the
show places of Madison county. In addition
to farming Mr. Blanton is a director in the
Bank of Fredericktown and has been for a
number of years financially interested in the
Fredericktown Trust Company, now the
Bankers' Trust Compan.y, of St. Louis. He
is also a stockholder in the ]\Ierchants Hotel
Building and in the Schwaner-Buford Com-
pany, two important business concerns at
Fredericktown.
In the year 1885 was recorded the marriage
]\Ir. Blanton to Miss Annie E. Lanpher, a
daugliter of George W. Lanpher. mentioned
elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Blan-
ton have three children, namely. — Lillie, who
remains at the parental home, was a student
in Marvin College in 1903 ; Walter was grad-
uated in the Fredericktown high school class
of 1909. and attended the Columbia Agi-i-
eultural College two terms, completing the
Agricultural coiirse in 1911 ; and Clyde is
now attending the public schools at Freder-
icktown. In their religious faith the Blan-
ton family are devout members of the Meth-
odist Episcopal church. South. While never
an office seeker, Mr. Blanton is a stanch
Democrat in his political affiliations and he
has ever manifested a deep and sincere inter-
est in commnnit.v affairs.
Jerome C. Berryman. A cherished mem-
ory is an enduring monument, more inef-
faceable than polished marble or burnished
bronze. "To live in the hearts we leave be-
hind is not to die." Rev. Jerome C. Berry-
man is held in reverent memory by scores of
people in Southeastern Missouri, where he
passed many years as a Methodist minister,
missionary and educator. His demise oc-
curred on the 8th of May, 1906, in the vil-
lage of Caledonia, Missouri.
The Rev. Berryman was bom in the vicin-
726
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :MISSOrRI
ity of Bardstowu, Nelson county, Kentucky,
the date of his nativity having been the 22nd
of February, 1810. He was a sou of Gerard
Blackstone and Ailsie (Quisinberry) Berry-
man, both of whom were likewise natives of
the fine old Blue Grass commonwealth, where
the father was long identified with agricul-
tural pursuits. Jerome C. Berryman was
reared to the age of eighteen years in his na-
tive place, where he received a good common-
school education and where he gained his
early knowledge of ilethodist theology. In
1828 he came to jMissouri, where he was taken
on trial into the Methodist Conference. His
first circuit comprised seventeen counties,
with Farmington as headquarters. In 1833
he was sent to the Kickapoo Mission and
School, among the Indians in Kansas, remain-
ing in that state for a period of fifteen years,
at the expiration of which he returned to
^lissouri. While a resident of Kansas his
cherished and devoted wife and two of his
six children passed to the life eternal and
were buried in that state.
In 1853 Rev. Berryman was appointed as
pastor of the Centenary church, at St. Louis,
his peculiar talents seeming to be demanded
by the conditions existing there. In the year
1847 he founded the Arcadia College, at Ar-
cadia, Missouri, and for twenty years he had
charge of that institution, whose successor is
Marvin College, at Fredericktown. Asso-
ciated with Rev. Berryman in the conduct of
numerous revivals in Missouri was his
brother-in-law, well known by the unique
sobriquet of "Rough and Ready" Watts.
For some twenty years he was on the super-
annuated list of Methodist ministers and at
the time of his demise, in 1906, he was the
only surviving member of the historic Gen-
surviving member of the historic General
Conference of 1844. Just before he passed
into the great beyond he received a message
of love and sympathy from the General Con-
ference, then convened at Birmingham. The
funeral of Rev. Berryman was conducted at
Caledonia, the sermon having been preached
by Rev. [Martin T. Haw, who was assisted
bv Reverends A. P. SafiEold, W. W. Emory,
W. J. Ileys and Rev. E. H. White. Con-
cerning his great religious spirit the follow-
ing statement is particularly fitting here:
"To hear him sing "How Firm a Foiuidation'
or 'I'm Nearer my Home' was to have faith
reassured as by an interview with a prophet
or apostle."
Rev. Berryman was married three times.
He wedded Sarah C. Cessua, of Kentuckj-,
who bore him six children and who died in
Kansas while Rev. Berryman was a mission-
ary among the Indians. In 1847 was solemn-
ized his marriage to ilrs. ]\I. M. Wells, and
after her death, in 1868, he married Mrs.
Mary Trueheart, also deceased. In his prime
Rev. Berryman was in every sense of the
word an extraordinary man. Physically, he
was over six feet tall, with broad shoulders
and a fine erect carriage. His massive head
and rugged face showed force and power of
unusual order and the kindly expression of
his large mouth, together with his deep sono-
rous voice, was reassuring to all mankind.
He was a man of splendid mental caliber and
high ideals; generosit.y and kindliness of
spirit characterized his every thought and
act, and he was everywhere honored and es-
teemed for his innate goodness and unusual
ability.
The Honor.vble Thomas F. Lane, one of
the most prominent lawyers in Cape Girar-
deau county, has had wide and varied expe-
rience in his profession. A man with strong
opinions on all public questions, he has al-
ways had the courage to express them. While
in the senate he had the most exalted views
of his office and the obligations it involved.
He was not there to pander to public senti-
ment or so to trim his sails that he might
arouse a popular feeling among the people of
his district, but he was there to represent
the people as he felt they should be repre-
sented. He felt that if it were otherwise and
he were to be restricted in his views and
their expression and obliged to wait to find
out whether they pleased his constituents or
not. that he would infinitely rather go back
into private life and become a private citi-
zen, with the right to express his views, un-
trammeled and unciuestioned by anybody on
earth, — with the right to try to formulate
public sentiment along the lines of his ideas.
A man with such decided views could not
fail of being an important factor in his party
and in the country in general.
He was born in Dalton, Georgia, April 16,
1869. His father, John F. Lane, a native of
Tennessee, receiving his education in Georgia,
where he studied and practiced law. In
1868 he came to Poplar Bluff, where he es-
tablished one of the fii-st stores of that to^vii.
He carried on a thriving mercantile estab-
lishment, but did not personally have much
to do with its management, devoting his time
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
727
to his law practice. He was elected prosecut-
ing attorney and was probate judge for one
term. He was a Democrat of the most de-
cided character. He was a prominent jMason
and also belonged to the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows. Nor did he limit his opera-
tions to secular enterprises, but was instru-
mental in building the First ilethodist Epis-
copal Church in South Poplar Bluff, work-
ing indefatigably to raise the money to pay
for the edifice, besides aiding in the carrying
on of the various branches of church work.
He died at the age of sixty three, having
lived a very active life. The people in Pop-
lar Bluff considered him as one of the pro-
gressive men ot i.ie town, one who was inter-
ested in all public affairs and indeed in any
object he considered worthy, whether public
or private. While still living in Georgia, he
married Rosa A. Keith, a native of Whitfield
county, Georgia, where she was educated.
She is still living, interested in the welfare of
her children, beloved by the large circle of
friends who surround her. ilr. and Jlrs.
Lane have five children.
When Thomas was a baby of about twelve
months, he came with his parents to south-
eastern Jlissouri, locating at Poplar Bluff.
^Tien he was old enough he went to school,
passing through the grade school and the
high school in Poplar Bluff. After his grad-
uation he began the study of law in the of-
fice of J. Perry Johnson. He, with a boy's
admiration of his father's profession, had
long ago decided that he wanted to be a law-
yer, and during his high school course had
already shown his abilities along that line.
He entered the law department of the State
University at Columbia. Missouri, graduat-
ing in 1893. He was admitted to the bar the
same year, returned to Poplar Bluff and en-
gaged in practice. After three years he
moved to Ripley county and two years later
was elected prosecuting attorney. That he
was successful in this position was evidenced
by his being re-elected three times, holding
the office four terms in all. He had made
himself so necessary in politics that in 1908
lie was elected to the senate, the twent.v-first
district, including Cape Girardeau, Bollinger,
Wayne. Carter, Ripley, Butler and Dunklin
counties. He was a man who coiald not be a
silent member, but from his very make-up was
in the midst of things. He was chairman of
the committee on fish and game, — a subject
that was dear to his heart as he was an ardent
sportsman all his life. He was a member of
the following committees : — jurisprudence,
wills and probate law, education. University
and normal schools. He was chairman of the
committee on county courts and justices of
the peace.
On January 1.5, 1890, he married Mary E.
Johnson, the eldest daughter of ex-senator J.
Perry Johnson of Poplar Bluff. Mrs. Lane
spent all her maiden days in Poplar Bluff,
where she was extremely popular, not 'for her
father's sake, — although he was very highly
esteemed in the town, but she was loved be-
cause of her own sweet personality, to which
the dignity and responsibility of matron-
hood has only added grace and attractive-
ness. The senator and his wife have three
children living, Lowell C, Bryan J., and
Abigail F.
Thomas Lane is a prominent secret society
man, belonging to the Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Or-
der of Elks, No. .589, the Knights and Ladies
of Security. He is also a member of the
Commercial Club in Cape Girardeau. There
is nothing half hearted about the senator.
When he is engaged in politics, he thinks of
nothing else; when he is conducting a case,
for him there is no other ease; his fraternal
connections are just as important, when he
finds time to devote to them, nor is he less en-
thusiastic in regard to his recreations or his
family relations. Socially he is extremely
hospitable, bis niunerous friends finding ready
welcome from him and his charming wife.
JoHx C. BuERKLE. There are turning
points in every man's life called opportu-
nity. Taken advantage of they mean ulti-
mate success. The career of John C. Buerkle
is a striking illustration of the latter state-
ment. Diligent and ever alert for his chance
of advancement, he has progressed steadily
until he is recognized as one of the foremost
business men of Cape Girardeau, Missouri,
to-day. Here he is held in high esteem by his
fellow citizens who honor him for his native
abilit.y and for his fair and straightforward
career.
ilr. Buerkle was born at Jackson, Mis-
souri, on the 22nd of September, 1880, and
he is a son of John M. Buerkle, whose nativ-
ity occurred at Wittenberg, Germany, on the
16th of April, 1829. About the year 1850
the father bade farewell to the scenes of his
childhood and youth and set out for Amer- .
iea, where he immediately began to work at
728
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
his trade, that of cooper. The second year
after his arrival in the United States he
came to Cape Girardeau couutj'', Missouri,
and here engaged in agricultural pursuits,
continuing to be identified with farming ope-
rations until his retirement from active busi-
ness life, in 11)02. lie was united in marriage
to Miss Fredericka Kies and this union was
prolific of four children, one of whom died in
infancy. Those living at the present time
are : ^laiy ; Augusta, who is now ;\Irs. John
Lucht; and John C, the immediate subject
of this review. John C. Buerkle received his
preliminary educational training in the pub-
lic schools and in the Geimian parochial
school at Jackson. After completing the
course prescribed in the local high school he
attended the Jackson Military Academy for
a period of one year.
In 1899 Mr. Buerkle became interested in
the general merchandise business as an em-
ploye of the firm of O'Brien & McAfee, with
whom he remained for two years, at the ex-
piration of which he bought out the share
of the senior member of the finn. There-
after a prosperous and profitable business
was run under the firm name of IMcAtee &
Buerkle but at the end of three years Mr.
Buerkle was forced to \vithdraw on account
of the impaired condition of his health. Since
that time to the present he has been engaged
in a number of different business enterprises.
For a time he conducted a laundry at Jack-
son and he also ran a livery stable in that
city. He then went to lUmo, Missouri, where
he turned his attention to the coal and feed
business and whence he removed, at the end
of six months, to Cape Girardeau, coming
hither on the 24th of March, 1909. Here he
has since been engaged in the coal and ice
business, being at the present time associated
in that enterprise with C. E. Meyer. He is a
man of splendid business abilitj^ and one who
will surel.v gain a high position in the finan-
cial affairs of this city.
On the loth of November, 1910. was sol-
emnized the marriage of Mr. Buerkle to Miss
Margaret McEndree, a popular young woman
of Cape Girardeau, where she was reared and
educated. In their religious adherency Mr.
and ]\Irs. Buerkle are devout memliors of the
German Evangelical church, in the various
departments of which they are most ardent
and active workers. In politics he accords a
stanch allegiance to the principles and pol-
icies for which the Republican party stands
sponsor. Wliile he is not an office seeker he
is ever on the qui vive and enthusiastically
in sj-mpath}^ with all measures and enter-
prises advanced for the good of the general
welfare. In addition to holding membership
in a number of representative social and
fraternal organizations I\Ir. Buerkle is also a
valued and appreciative member of the Com-
mercial Club of Cape Girardeau.
Fred J. Ruether. One of the prominent
and popular citizens of Washington is Fred
J. Ruether, mayor of the city, who has re-
sided here and in this vicinity since 1899, his
business relations to the community having
been those of a hotel man and retail liquor
dealer. He is a native Missourian, his birth
having occurred in St. Charles county, April
18, 1869, the son of Henry and Mary (Albers)
Ruether, the latter born in ]\Ii.ssouri of Ger-
man parents. Mr. Ruether, Sr., was born in
Hanover, Prussia, in 1836. and came to the
United States at the age of sixteen years in
company with a widowed mother, two broth-
ers and a sister. The other members of the
family are Antoine and John Ruether, and
Agnes, who subsequently became the wife of
Henry Bolte and resides in St. Louis.
The Ruethers settled in St. Charles county
and engaged in farming, and there Henry
Ruether married and established an inde-
pendent household. He and his wife both
passed away in 1872. leaving the following
children : Mrs. Ida Kleckcamp, of St. Loiiis ;
Kate, wife of Frank Meyer, of New Haven.
Missouri ; and Fred J., the mayor of "Wash-
ington.
Left an orphan in babyhood, Fred J.
Ruether passed his youth in the home of an
uncle, the John Ruether above mentioned, and
his youthful activities were given to the labor
of the farm. He attended the country school
and himself became a farmer on attaining his
majority. In 1898 he abandoned the great
basic industry and located at New Melle.
where he embarked in the hotel business, with
a buffet as a prominent feature. In 1899 he
located in Washington, where opportunities
were greater and more commensurate -with his
ambition, and his career here has been very
successful.
Mr. Ruether first became identified with
public affairs of Washington when he was
chosen a member of the council, and in that
capacity he served for two terms. In 1908
the Republicans iiiade him their candidate for
mayor and he was elected to the office. His
services were of such satisfactory character
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
"29
that the people re-elected him two years
later. Diiriug his regime the matter of mak-
ing new contracts with the water company
and the electric company for service came up
for rearrangement, and new franchises were
finally granted to each upon favorable terms
to the city. A five year contract was made
with the water company and a ten year ar-
rangement was effected with the light com-
pany. The purchase of a I'oller for the
streets also marked the beginning of more
substantial street improvements under his ad-
ministration. It has been a progressive
administration, in truth.
Mayor Ruether was happily married in
September, 1897, in St. Louis, Missouri, Mrs.
Louisa Hinnch, a native of that county and
a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fink, becoming
his wife. They have three daughters. Hilda,
Frederica and Lucile.
Save for his connection with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, Mr. Ruether is not
a fraternity man. His residence of a dozen
j'ears in Washington has entitled him to a
place among the capable, law'-abidiug and
law-enforcing citizens, and his selection for
the chief magistrate is only one manifestation
of the general confidence reposed in him.
Clarence M. Swan. As the hope of any
community lies in its young men, Bollinger
county is particularlj^ fortunate in possess-
ing a fine, enterprising .young citizenship, and
among the prominent and highly respected
members of the younger generation is Clar-
ence Marvin Swan, who is siiccessfully en-
gaged in general agriculture and stock rais-
ing. Mr. Swan was born on the eleventh day
of February, 1884, in the western part of
the county which still claims his residence,
and is a son of John William and Sophia
Catherine (Sitze) Swan, natives of Missouri.
The paternal grandfather was Abraham
Swan, who lived at Wittenberg, Perry coun-
ty. Missouri.
Clarence M. Swan has two brothers living :
Charles A., born May 20, 1882, associated in
operating the farm ; and Earl M. Swan, born
December 27, 1892, resides with the parents
at Cape Girardeau and is attending the nor-
mal there.
Mr. Swan was reared upon the homestead
of his father and under the elder gentleman's
tutelage became familiar with the various de-
partments of agriculture. He attended the
public schools and eventually entered the
State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Mis-
souri, which institution he attended two and
a half years, until 1905. He then took up
farming and cultivates his father's large
property of six hundred and forty acres, he
receiving a large share of the profits. He
employs up-to-date agricultural methods and
the result has been most satisfactory. In ad-
dition to general farming he engages in stock
raising and buys some stock each year.
Mr. Swan became a recruit to the ranks of
the Benedicts when, on October 9, 1907, he
established an independent household by his
marriage to Miss Kitty Shetley, daughter of
M. James and Jennie (Whitener) Shetley,
the father a native of North Carolina and
the mother a daughter of Missouri. They
share their attractive home with one child,
Beryl, born in 1908. Mr. Swan is in har-
mony with the policies advanced by the Dem-
ocratic party and he and his wife ai-e con-
sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal
church, South.
J. F. Feerell is one of the prominent
farmers of Dunklin county. If there is one
life more than another where there is room
for the exercise of a man's intelligence it is
the life of a farmer. It used to be thought
that agricultural pursuits did not require
much brains, but now men are of the opinion
that if a farmer is to get out of the soil aU
that it is capable of producing, he must use
his head as well as his muscles. If proof of
this statement were needed it can readily be
obtained by considering two farmers who own
the same amount of land, with similar cli-
matic and other conditions; the one will pro-
duce nearly twice as much as the other, and
yet they both put the same amount of labor
on the land, the difference is that the one
brings his mind to bear on every phase of his
work, while the other expects his muscles to
accomplish everything. Mr. Ferrell is one
of that class of farmers who uses both head
and muscles, the result being a productive
farm.
J. F. Ferrell was bom on a farm near
Nashville. Tennessee, March 25, 1870. and his
father was a mechanic of recognized ability.
When J. F. had .just passed his third birth-
day the family took up their residence in
Greene county, Arkansas, and the eight .vears
which succeeded their migration were among
the most eventful in the entire life of J. F.,
as they contained his elementary educational
training, the death of his father and his
mother and his removal to jMissouri, in com-
(30
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
pauy with his uncle and his oldest sister.
The little party of three located near Ken-
nett, having walked the entire distance from
their home in Greene county, Arkansas, in
one day. The uncle rented a tract of land
and commenced farming operations, in which
his niece and nephew assisted to the best of
their abilities. When J. F. had reached the
age of fourteen he severed home ties and
commenced to carve his own career, beginning
by working for the different neighbors and
receiving in return the sum of six dollars a
month. It is hardly to be conceived how he
could save any money on this small remuner-
ation, but in 1890 he had enough ahead to
justify him in renting a small farm, which
he operated for ten years, then bought one
hundred and fort.v acres of timber land, all
of which he has cleared himself. Later he
sold forty acres of this tract and now owns
one hundred acres, on which he has built a
seven roomed house and two barns, one sixty
feet square and the other forty by fifty feet.
Of his hundred acres seventy are under cul-
tivation and his crop consists principally of
corn, besides considerable cotton.
In the month of October, 1890, the same
year that Mr. Ferrell rented his little farm,
he married iliss Henrietta Robinson, a native
of Kennett. Five years later, October 6.
1895, their son, De Witt, was born, and in
February, 1900, before the little boy had
reached his fifth birthday, the mother died.
In 1901 his father introduced a new mother
into the home, in the person of Miss Mollie
Shelton. who became Mrs. J. F. Ferrell in
that year. She was born in 1870. in Pemi-
scot county, her parents being old settlers in
this section of Missouri. In the course of
time three children were born to this union:
Myrtle, whose birth occurred December 8.
1903 ; Ira, born September 8. and Pearl, bom
April 8. 1907.
]Mr. Ferrell is a member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows of Kennett and of
the Farmers' Union. In politics he is a Re-
publican, believing that the Republican plat-
form contains the best elements of good gov-
ernment. When, at the age of fourteen, ilr.
Ferrell started out in life he was absolutely
without capital other than that of a good
constitution and habits of industry: he did
not even possess much of an education, yet
he has achieved success, by his own unaided
efforts. He has realized, however, the ad-
vantases of a good education, and is giving
his children the best advantages that the
region affords. He has many friends in
Dunklin county — friends who have known
him from the time he first came into the
neighborhood, who have watched him strug-
gle in his efforts to succeed, and who have
seen him arise victorious.
Franklin W. Brickey. The Briekey fam-
ily has had a leading part in the business
development of that part of southeast ]Mis-
souri included in Ste. Genevieve and Jeffer-
son counties for nearly three quartei-s of a
centurj'. Three generations have been iden-
tified with the affairs of Brickey 's Landing,
in the former county, of which Franklin
Woleut, of this sketch, the ^\'idely kno\vn
citizen of Festus, is a native.
ilr. Brickey was born at that place on the
16th of July, 1844, a son of John Compton.
The father was a native of Potosi, Missouri,
bom on the 16tli of Februarj-, 1816, and he
spent his boyhood in that place, where the
grandfather was a school teacher and keeper
of a small store. "\Mien he had reached an
age at which he could be entrusted with a
team, Jolin C. commenced to haul lead ore
to Selma on the Mississippi River, and at the
age of nineteen found employment in the
office of J, M, White, of Seliiia, In 1838,
when twent.y-two years of age, he moved
from Selma to Brickey 's Landing, where he
opened a small store and wood yard for the
river trade and steamboats. The elder Mr.
Brickey was carried along in the second
great tide of emigrants to the Pacific coast,
spending the years from 1851 to 1853 in Cal-
ifornia. He then returned to Brickey 's
Landing, engaged in general merchandise,
and in 1869 erected a flour mill in the famil-
iar home town. He sold his business in 1874
to his son. F. W. Brickey, and in 1888 moved
to Festus, where he resided, partially retired
from business and industrial life, until his
death, January 15, 1903,
John C, Brickey was a Democrat of the old
school and a stanch member of the Jlethodist
church. South. In 1840 he married Jliss
Mary Carpenter, of Rush Tower, Jefferson,
and the two offsprings of their union were
Eliza M. (JMrs. Aubuchow) and Franklin W.,
of this biography. ;\Irs. Marj' Brickey died in
1844, and about a year later the widower
married his first wife's sister. Miss Emily
Carpenter, by whom he had fourteen chil-
dren. Nine of this family are still living.
F. W. Briekey secured his early education
in various country- schools of Jefferson, Ste.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
rsi
Genevieve and St. Francois counties. He
also completed one term at the Ste. Genevieve
Academy. At the organization of the En-
rolled Militia of Missouri in 1863, he joined
a company and was elected its tirst lieutenant,
but before he entered active service was ar-
rested and held under bond until the close
of the Civil war. During that period, in
1863-4, he operated a saw mill in Ste. Gene-
vieve county, and in December, 1865, pur-
chased a store at Glasgow City, Illinois, con-
ducting the business for about seven years.
For a short time he was similarity engaged at
Cross Timbers, Hickory county, and then
moved to De Soto, Jefferson county, where
he continued to conduct a good mercantile
business until 1874. Mr. Brickey then
bought his father's store and mill at the
Landing, of which he was the proprietor un-
til 1885, or the year of his coming to Festus.
At this place he purchased the plant which
he has since operated with such profit and
success under the name of the Festus Roller
Mills.
]Mr. Brickey has been president of the
Citizen's Bank of Festus for several years,
has sei"\'ed as president of the local School
Board, and thoroughly demonstrated his ca-
pacity as a thorough-going and high-minded
citizen. He is a Democrat and identified
with ilasonry as a Knight Templar. Mar-
ried in 1889 to Miss Nettie E. Davis, he is
the father of four sons — Nor\'al Wolcott,
Franklin Compton, Paul Ashland and Ray-
mond Davis Brickey.
De. Philbert.R. Williams, the prominent
physician of Cape Girardeau, is as universally
respected as he is known. In these days of
specialization it is a relief to find a physician
who is a general practitioner. Dr. Williams
is as fully qualified to perform a surgical
operation as he is to steer a patient through
a slow case of typhoid fever. His personality
is such that his mere presence serves as a
medicine ; his attitude is just sympathetic
enough to convey the assurance of sincerity
and at the same time is cheerful enough to
elevate the spirits of the sick one.
He was born in Cape Girardeau county,
October 20, 1856. His father, Francis M.
Williams, was a native of Cape Girardeau
county also, having been born near Jackson.
His whole life was spent in the count.v and
he died here at the advanced age of eighty-
five. He had been a farmer all his life, but
he retired -from active work about twenty
years before his death. His wife was Char-
lotte Randall, a native of Cape Girardeau
county, the daughter of Jeremiah Randall,
who had come to southeastern ^Missouri with
liis father; the3' were among the eai-ly set-
tlers in the county, ilrs. Williams was sixty-
nine years old at the time of her death. Of
her family of eight children only four are
living at the present time, the Doctor being
the eldest of the familj'. Isaac S. Williams,
father of Francis H. and grandfather of
Philbert R. was a native of Kentucky, of
Welsh descent. He was one of the pioneers
of southeastern Missouri. He represented
Cape Girardeau in the legislature, riding on
horse-back to the capital.
Philbert R. Williams attended the public
school of Cape Girardeau and the state nor-
mal. He had made up his mind that he
wanted to be a physician, but he did not have
the money needed to attend the university, at
the time he finished his course at the state
normal. He, therefore, went to work in a
drug store, where he would have the oppor-
tunity to learn something about medicines, at
the same time he studied most diligently in
his spare time and saved up every dollar he
could spare to pay his college expenses. He
entered the St. Louis Medical College in 1876,
graduating in 1878. After he had obtained
his degree he located at Kelso, Scott county,
Missouri, where he was in practice for twenty-
eight years. In December, 1905, he came to
Cape Girardeau, where he has been in prac-
tice ever since. He is a member of the South-
eastern Missouri Medical Society and of the
Cape Girardeau local society.
In 1879 the Doctor married Mary S. Har-
ris, the daughter of John Harris, who was a
Welshman and came to America when he was
a young man. He settled in Cape Girardeau,
where his daughter ilary was born. ilr. and
Jlrs. Williams have two sons, Lero.y J. liv-
ing at Fort Scott, Kansas, and is manager of
the Western Union telegraph office there.
Paul R. expects to follow in his father's foot-
steps and is attending the St. Louis Univer-
sity, being a junior in the medical depart-
ment.
The Doctor is a member of the Masonic
order, having high standing in that organiza-
tion. He is a life long resident of south-
eastern Missouri, his family on both sides be-
ing prominent in the early history of the
state. Considering the short time Dr. Wil-
liams has been in the city of Cape Girardeau,
he has been remarkably successful, and yet it
732
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
is not remarkable when the personality of
the Doctor is taken into consideration. He
inspires contidence, making his patients feel
that he is a true friend. He tinds many op-
portunities of doing good, going about from
place to place, but his kind acts are per-
formed in such an unobtrusive way that none
but the recipients of his help know anything
about these deeds.
Thomas H. Ham. Widely and favorably
known as one of Senath's prosperous agri-
culturists, Thomas H. Ham is numbered
among the citizens of good repute aud high
standing, and is well worthy of representa-
tion in a work of this character. Born No-
vember 30, 1863, one mile east of his present
home, he has spent almost his entire life in
Dunklin county, although as a boy of ten
years or thereabout he lived for a year in
Iron county, Missouri, and two years in
Wavne county.
His father, Thomas F. Ham, was born in
Tennessee, but was brought up in Pemiscot
county, Missouri. In 1862 he made his way
to Dunklin county, and soon after fell a vic-
tim to the charms of Mary Harkey, to whom
he wa.s married on January 4. 1863. He im-
mediately bought a tract of wild land near
Senath. and began the pioneer labor of hew-
ing a fai-m from the wilderness, clearing and
improving a part of the land now owned and
occupied by his son Thomas. During the
Civil war he in common with his neighbors
stxffered untold hardships and privations, and
even in later years often found it hard to
make both ends meet. Provisions were high,
and Thomas H. Ham remem.bers that when
a boy his father sent a man to Cape Girar-
deau to buy a barrel of flour, which cost him
fifteen dollars there, but cost ten dollars
more to get it to Senath. At twenty-five dol-
lars a barrel it is no wonder that he and his
family, as well as their neighbors, had flour
bread but once a week.
The oldest of a family of six boys and six
girls, of whom four boys and four girls are
now living. Thomas H. Ham remained at
home assisting his father, who was disabled
while serving as a soldier in the Confederate
army, in the care of the home farm, continu-
ing thus employed until his marriaEro. Be-
ginning life then for himself, Mr. Ham. who
owned a team but had no other resources,
rented land for two years, and carried on
general farming with good results. ?Ie then
purcha.sed a tract of land lying cast of
Senath, and after living there for five or six
years bought his present farm, which was the
parental homestead, buying the interest of
the remaining heirs in the estate, and now
owning one hundred and ten acres of rich
and fertile land. About forty acres of it was
covered with timber when he purchased it,
but he has cleared it, and has made other
noteworthy improvements on the place, hav-
ing erected a substantial house and barn, and
all the other necessary farm buildings, his
place comparing favorably in point of im-
provements and appointments with any in
the community.
Politically Mr. Ham is an uncompromising
Democrat, and active in party ranks. In the
Forty-fourtli General Assembl.y he repre-
sented Dunklin county, and during his term
in the State Legislatitre served on the Swamp
Lands and Drainage Committee ; on the Com-
mittee on Penitentiaries and Reform Schools ;
on the Committee of Agriculture, and was
connected with other committees of impor-
tance. He has served in various county and
.judicial conventions, and was a delegate to
the Congi-essional Convention that nominated
W. D. Vandevere for Congressman from the
fourteenth district of Missouri. Fraternally
Mr. Ham is a member of Senath Lodge, No.
513, A. F. & A. M., and of Caruth Lodge,
I. 0. 0. F. Religiously he is a valued mem-
ber of Harkey 's Chapel, Methodist Episcopal
church. South, and has been superintendent
of its Sunday school.
Mr. Ham married. November 25. 1886, in
Stoddard count.y, Missouri, near Asherville,
Annie L. McKay, who was born in Pemiscot
county, Missouri, April 3, 1867, and prior to
her marriage taught school several terms in
Dunklin county, in which she has spent the
greater part of her life. Mr. and Mrs. Ham
are the parents of eight children, namely:
Lilly, wife of T. E. Selby, of Dunklin
county; Edith, wife of E. T. Tucker, prin-
cipal of the schools in Cardwell, Missouri ;
Olin ; Annie ; Belle ; Eure : Bennie ; and
Price. Mr. and Mrs. Selby have two sons,
"Wyman and Byron, aged five and one and
one-half years, resnectivelv. Mr. aiid Mrs.
Tucker have two children, Winnis and Zaner,
aged three and one years, respectively.
Thomas Huskey is one of the prosperous
farmers residine in Lorance township. Most
people succeed better as employes than as
employers, which is doubtless the reason why
so many buy farms and lose them. They are
^&^i™-^^</^/^^w;
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
733
unable to make them pay, uot because they
do not labor enough, but because thej- do uot
use their brains sufficiently. Brought up on
the farm, ^iv. Huskey has found it impossi-
ble to leave the agricultural life permanently,
although for years he was connected with the
industrial progress of Southeastern Missouri.
He has now responded to the call of the laud
and returned to the simple farm life, not be-
cause he could uot succeed in business, but
because he felt impelled to return to nature.
Born on the 8th day of June, 1858, in
Sevier county, Tennessee, Mr. Huskey is a son
of William and Mary (Shults) Huskey,
natives of Sevier county. Father Huskey
was reared on a farm in Tennessee ; received
his education in that state and there married,
by which union he became the father of live
children, — John, Thomas, Annie, Mattie and
Sarah. John Huskey was sheriff of Bollinger
county, Missouri, from 1888 to 1892. In
1862 Mr. Huskey enlisted in the Union
army, serving with the Eleventh Tennessee
Cavalry until September, 1865, when he re-
ceived his honorable discharge. During his
army life he had been a participant in many
closely contested battles; was present at the
siege of Knoxville and many other important
conflicts. On his return to the life of a civil-
ian he found himself a widower, as his wife
had been summoned to her last rest during
the progress of the war. In 1866 he married
Miss Mary Feasel, who bore him four chil-
dren, — Laura, David, Willie and Hattie. In
1871 he, his wife and seven children (two
having died) migrated to Missouri, settled
on a farm four miles north of Marble Hill,
Bollinger county, and there the family was
increased by the birth of four more children,
— Baxter B., Loie, Oscar and Lulu. Four
other children were born to Mr. and Jlrs.
William Huskey, but they are all dead.
Father Huskey farmed in Bollinger county
(at different places), until 1897, when he
went to Cape Girardeau county, and lived at
Cape Girardeau until the 25th day of July,
1910: he then went to Seattle, Washington,
remained there for nine months, and returned
to Bollinger county in April. 1911.
When Thomas Huskey was a very small
bov his mother died and his father remar-
ried. The first thirteen years of his life were
passed in his native eountv in Tennessee,
where he attended school and learned how to
perform those duties which are required of
a boy who is brought up on a farm. In 1S71
he accompanied his family to IMissouri ; there
he received further educational training, and
after terminating his schooling he remained
on his father's farm until he attained his ma-
jority, when he became engaged in the timber
business. In 1884 he settled on a tract of
land in Lorance township, commenced to
work on the wild prairie and bring it under
cultivation and he built a house, into which
he moved in the month of June, 1886. He re-
mained on his farm until 1 894, at which time
he was elected to office and moved to Marble
Hill, where he resided two yeai-s. He was for
three years superintendent of the Pioneer
Cooperage Company plant — in 1906, 1907
and 1908. On the 8th day of August, 1908,
he went back to the farm in Lorance town-
ship, where he has remained ever since, culti-
vating his hundred acres of good farm land.
On December 25, 1884, the time that Mr.
Huskey moved to his farm for the first time,
he was united in marriage to Miss Amanda
Bailey, whose birth had occurred in Bollinger
county November 20, 1862. She is a daugh-
ter of John Bailey, a native of Bollinger
county, and Mary (Chandler) Bailey, born
in Caswell county. North Carolina. Four
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huskey,
—May, born July 6, 1886, married A. M.
Barrett of Lorance township. Mrs. Barrett
was a teacher in the Public Schools of Bollin-
ger county before marriage. Ray, whose birth
occurred March 22, 1888, was killed by a train
when he was twenty-one years of age. Nellie,
whose nativity took place on the 10th day of
September, 1891, married Frank Whitten,
son of attorney Wliitten, April 26, 1911, of
Paris, Texas, but who is now an electrician
at Ft. Towson, Oklahoma. Mrs. Whitten was
a teacher in the Central High School of Okla-
homa at the time of her marriage. Thomas,
who was born March 15, 1893, is now em-
ployed by the railroad when not assisting his
father on the farm. He graduated from the
public schools of Bollinger county in 1911.
In a fraternal way Mr. Huskey is affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
and in relieious connection is a member of
the Methodist Episcopal church. He has a
larsre circle of friends in Bollinger county,
where he has spent so many years of his life.
Albert Blaine, one of Piedmont's most
prominent and popular citizens, is a Mis-
sourian, also the son of Missourians. and his
two grandfathers were pioneers in the state.
His paternal grandfather was a farmer and
an iron worker who came from Pennsylvania
734
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and settled in Washington county, the birth-
place of Albert Blaine of this review. The
maternal grandfather, Lewis Simms, went
from Pennsylvania to Alabama and from
there came to Missouri. He took up his
abode in St. Francois county, where he en-
tered land and operated a tan yard, manu-
facturing leather goods. He was very suc-
cessful in both his farming and in his other
business. His daughter, jMary Simms, was
bom near Plat River, December 25, 1817,
and died August 9, 1899. She married Al-
bert Blaine, who was born January 1, 1815,
at Eddis Grove, Kentucky, on June 15, 1843,
and brought up a family of eight children.
Four of these are still living in Missouri :
W. H. Blaine resides in Piedmont, which
town is also the home of the subject of this
review; Martha is the widow of Harrison
Wallace, of Potosi, ]\Iissouri. and Sara is Mrs.
W. J. Slais, of Potosi. The father, Albert,
Senior, was reared in Washington county,
Missouri. He was apprenticed to a black-
smith and followed that trade and mercantile
business in Potosi until his death, September
8, 1860. He was a Democrat in politics and
a member of the United Presbyterian church.
Albert Blaine, of Piedmont, was born in
Potosi, Washington count.y, in 1847, on the
21st of October. He grew up in Potosi, at-
tending the common schools and later Bryant
& Stratton's Business College at St. Louis.
He began his business career as a clerk and
worked in that capacity for seventeen years.
When gold was discovered in the Black
Hills, Mr. Blaine went there in quest of the
precious metal but did not "make a strike,"
so returned to Missouri in 1877. At that
time Piedmont was building up and so he
decided to locate here.
The drug business was that upon which
Mr. Blaine decided to enter in Piedmont and
in this he went into partnership with Mr. W.
P. Toney. The firm of Blaine & Toney had
a flourishing trade for six years and then Mr.
Blaine bought out his partner's interest and
continued in the drug business until 1905.
BIr. Blaine learned the drug business from
start to finish and is a registered pharma-
cist. The venture was a success in eveiy re-
spect. In Piedmont real estate Mr. Blaine's
holdings are considerable. He owns several
business blocks and residence properties and
has, besides, a small farm in Wayne county.
He is also a stockholder in and the vice-
president of the Piedmont Bank.
Mr. Blaine is a Democrat, now as always,
and he has been called iipon to fill various
offices in the public service. He has served
on the school board, has been county judge
for two years and city treasurer for fifteen
years. In addition to having attained suc-
cess in the sphere of commerce, Mr. Blaine
has the still more valuable possession which
men covet as a guerdon of this life's toils,
the hearty liking and admiration of his fel-
low citizens. He holds membership in both
the Masonic order and in the Knights of
Pythias.
Mr. Blaine has no children of his own.
His wife, formerly Mrs. IMaria (English)
Emonds, widow of Dr. D. D. Emonds, has
one daughter, Grace Emonds, who is now the
wife of C. T. Mason, of Francis, Oklahoma.
Mrs. Blaine was born at Patterson, Missouri,
a daughter of Julius English, who was an
early resident and a farmer of that section
of Wayne county. Both Mr. and ]\Irs. Blaine
are members of the Presbyterian church.
John N. O'Connor. Enterprising, ener-
getic and a good business manager, John N.
O'Connor, of Senath, was formerly for a
time well known as proprietor and manager
of a finely-kept restaurant, but is at present,
in the retail meat business, being thus en-
gaged since 1902. He has been busily em-
ployed since coming to this part of Dunklin
county, in 1898, and by means of industry,
thrift and sound judgment has acquired a
substantial property. He was born Decem-
ber 23, 1871, in Fulton, Kentucky, but as
an infant was taken bj' his parents to Henry
count.v, Tennessee, where he lived until a lad
of eight years.
Going from Tennessee to Arkansas, John
N. O'Connor lived a brief time in Lonoke,
and afterwards resided at Brinkley, Arkan-
sas, from 1882 until 1896, during which time
he improved every offered opportunity for
acquiring an education, at the same period
of his career becoming familiar with all the
branches of agriculture. Marrying in 1896,
Mr. O'Connor came with his bride to Dun-
klin county, ilissouri. and for a year worked
by the month on a farm situated about two
miles north of Senath. In April, 1898, he
took up his residence in Senath. where he was
engaged in draying and logging until 1902.
In the spring of that year he purchased a
house and lot in Senath, but subsequently
sold that property, and bought, on ilain
street, a lot sixty by a hundred feet. The
frame building standing on the lot was after-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
t35
wards burned, and Mr. 'Connor erected the
brick building in which are housed a res-
taurant, a meat market and a mercantile es-
tablishment. Mr. O'Connor also owns tive
houses and lots in Senath, two of the houses
having been built by him since he bought the
lots.
ilr. O'Connor married, in Arkansas, in
Slarch, 1896, Mary Dozier, and they have
two children, namely: Virgil, born in No-
vember, 1897 ; and Gertrude, born in 1900.
An active and highly esteemed member of the
Democratic party, Mr. O'Connor has ser^'ed
as a member of the Senath Board of Alder-
men for two terms, and for two years was
a member of the Senath Board of Educa-
tion, ilrs. O'Connor is a member of the
Baptist church at Senath.
Thomas J. Downs. A prominent farmer
and stockman, residing on his tine estate of
one hundred and twenty acres, eligibly lo-
cated just north of Fredericktown, Thomas
Jetferson Downs is a citizen whose loyalty
and public spirit have ever been of the most
insistent order. For a period of ten years —
from 1878 to 1888 — he was the popular and
efficient incumbent of the office of county
survej'or and from 1896 to 1904 he served
most creditably as county assessor. His finely
improved estate is known as the Nifong farm.
Mr. Downs was born in North Carolina,
the date of his nativity being the 5th of Au-
gust. 1846. He is a son of David and Mary
A. (Sherrill) Downs, both of whom were
likewise born in North Carolina, where they
continued to reside until their respective
deaths, in 1857 and 1872. After the death
of his first wife David Downs wedded Mary
Ann ilcLeod, who also died in North Caro-
lina. The father was a farmer and cotton
planter in his native state and he was a son
of Aaron Downs, born in Scotland in 1789,
and the original progenitor of the name in
America, he having immigrated to this coun-
try early in the nineteenth century. Aaron
Downs was the owner of a fine plantation in
North Carolina, where he also had some forty
negroes, ilary A. (Sherrill) Downs was a
daughter of David Sherrill, a prominent
miller and plantation owner in North Caro-
lina during his life time. The North Caro-
lina descendants of the Downs family were
all devout members of the Baptist church.
By his first marriage David Downs was the
father of four children, namely, — Aaron V.,
a banker and business man at Frederick-
town, ^lissouri ; William P., who is deceased ;
Mrs. Presswell, who is also deceased; and
Thomas J., of this notice. The second union
was likewise prolific of four children. — John
M., Robert Lee, Lulu and Louise, the first
two of whom are residents of North Carolina
and the latter two of whom are deceased.
Thomas J. Downs was reared to adult age
in his native state, to the public schools of
which place he is indebted for his prelim-
inary educational training. During the stren-
uous period of the Civil war his sympathies
were with the cause of the Confederacy and
in 1864, when eighteen years of age, he en-
listed as a soldier in Company G, Thirty-
second North Carolina Infantry, serving with
valorous distinction therein for one year or
until the close of the war. He was with Gen-
eral Early in the Shenandoah Valley and was
struck by a piece of shell in the kneecap at
Petersburg. He also participated in the last
charge made at Appomattox. In 1870 he re-
moved from the east to Missouri, settling
first at Iron Mountain. Having very little
money but being equipped with a fair educa-
tion, he began to teach school in Madison
county, continuing to be engaged in that oc-
cupation for a period of thirty years, during
most of which time he also engaged in farm-
ing operations. He has thoroughly familiar-
ized himself with the art of surveying and
does a great deat of that work in connection
with his farming. His farm of one hundred
acres is fitted with all the most modern im-
provements and is in a state of high culti-
vation. In politics he is a stalwart Demo-
crat and he has ever figured prominently in
local politics. In 1878 he was honored by
his fellow citizens with election to the of-
fice of county surveyor, serving with all of
honor and distinction in that capacity until
1888. In 1896 he was elected county assessor,
remaining in tenure of that office until 1904.
In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the
local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and in their religious faith he and
his wife and daughter are consistent members
of the ilethodist Episcopal church, South.
In North Carolina, in the year 1873, Mr.
Downs was -married to Miss Sarah Carlton,
who is a daughter of Pickens Carlton, rep-
resentative of a sterling old North Carolina
family. Mv. and I\Irs. Downs are the parents
of three children. — John Carlton, who is en-
gaged in farming enterprises south of Fred-
ericktown. married Miss Lizzie Pinegar and
they have three children, Frank, Clara and
736
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Blanche ; William M., engineer in a large salt
factory at Wyandotte, Michigan, has trav-
eled extensively, having made trips to China,
the Philippines and South Africa, and he
married Miss Mamie Homer, of Michigan;
and iMargaret, who was gi-aduated in the
state normal school at Cape Girardeau, is a
popular and successful teacher in Madison
county and remains at the parental home.
The Downs familj' are prominent and popu-
lar factors in connection with the best social
activities of their home community, their
residence being recognized as a center of re-
finement and hospitality.
John Shidler Kochtitzky. An essenti-
ally representative and influential citizen of
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is John Shidler
Kochtitzky, who is here engaged in the
dredging "business and who is ever on the qui
vive to do all in his power to advance the
progress and development of this section of
the state. Mr. Kochtitzky was born at Paris,
Ohio, the date of his nativity being the 24th
of March, 1857. He is a son of Oscar von
Kochtitzky, a native of Debreczin, Hmigaiy,
where he was born on the 13th of March,
1830. The father immigrated to the United
States in company with Louis Kossuth, the
exiled orator and patriot of Hungary and
after becoming a naturalized citizen of
America he eliminated the "Von" from his
name. His life was one of vicissitudes and
stirring adventures. After being educated
in the military academy at Buda Pesth,
Austria, he. at the age of seventeen years, in
1847. joined the German army and partici-
pated in the Schleswig-Holstein war. In that
campaign he served as aide-de-camp on the
staff of Field Marshal Wrangel, whose
brother admiral of that name gave name to
Wrangelland. Mr. Kochtitzky next saw
active service in the revolutionary struggle
against the House of Hapsburg. under Kos-
suth and Bene; this move came to naught,
however, owing to the treason of Gorgey.
The Hungarians being defeated, they sought
refuge in" Turkey. In the fall of 1849 he
enlisted for service in the Turkish navy,
spending a year and a half in the Mediterra-
nean, and in 18.^1 he came to America in
company with Kossuth, the two of them
rapidly mastering the Enelish languaee.
Althousrh a skilled civil engineer by profes-
sion, Mr. Kochtitzky located in Ohio, where
he turned his attention to agricultural pur-
suits and where he also conducted a saw mill.
At the time of the inception of the Civil war
he manifested intrinsic loyalty to the cause
of his adopted country by enlisting as a
soldier in Company I, One Hundred Fif-
teenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he
served with all of honor and distinction under
Colonel Lucy. After the close of the war- he
served as px-ovost marshal of middle Ten-
nessee for a time and in 1S67 he came to
Missouri, settling in Laclede county, which
he represented his constituents in . the state
legislature in the sessions of 1871 and 1872,
in which he was chairman of the committees
on Militia and Immigration. He was a man
of influence in public and business affairs and
among other things was instrumental in
bringing about the union of the Atlantic and
Pacific coast survey. In connection with
Major George B. Clark he constructed the
Little River Valley & Arkansas Railroad,
which line was later disposed of to the Texas
& St. Louis Railroad Company, the same
being now known as the Cotton Belt Line.
At the age of fifty-five years he was ap-
pointed, at Jefferson City, Missouri, as com-
missioner of labor statistics. He married
Miss Caroline Shidler, the ceremony having
been performed at Paris, Ohio, on the 25th
of June, 1854. This union was prolific of
eleven children, concerning whom the follow-
ing brief data are here recorded, — Otto L. is
a resident of Cape Girardeau ; John S. is the
immediate subject of this review ; Mary Kate,
the wife of Rev. J. V. Worsham, and died at
Fort Valley. Georgia; Josephine is deceased;
Ella Eva is now Mrs. J. A. Hess, of Sikes-
ton. Missouri ; Alfred died in infancy : Ed-
ward Hugh maintains his home at Mount
Airy, North Carolina, as does also Caroline
O., who is the wife of William ^Merritt ; May
died in infancy: Wilbur 0. is a resident of
]\Ionroe. North Carolina ; and Frank died in
infancy. The father was summoned to the
life eternal at Jefferson City, Missouri, on
the 15th of February, 1891.
John S. Kochtitzky, of this notice, received
his early educational training in the public
schools. At the age of seventeen years he
left school and in company with his brother
Otto went into southeastern Missouri, where,
under the father's instructions, they pre-
pared survevs in connection with the build-
ine of the Little River Vallev & Arkansas
railroad. Subseqneiitlv I\Ir. Kochtitzky was
interested in steaniboating on the old Anchor
Line Steamers, his work being of a clerical
nature. In the year 1881 he engaged in the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
737
mercantile business at Maiden, Missouri.
After abandoning the mercantile business he
went to iSlew Madrid and there became in-
terested in the marketing of ice. One year
later he established his home at Kansas City,
Missouri, where he again engaged in mercan-
tile enterprises, and from the latter place he
removed to Carl Junction, Missouri, where
he became interested in lead aud zinc mining.
In 1903 he went to Joplin, Missouri, where
he launched out into the wholesale notion
business, his establishment being known
under the firm name of the Simeon Notion
Company, and where he remained for a
period of three years, at the expiration of
which, in 1906, he came to Cape Girardeau,
Missouri. Since the latter year Mr. Koch-
titzky and his brother Otto have conducted
an extensive and profitable dredging business.
They are well known in financial affairs in
this city and are exceedingly popular on
their sterling worth and impregnable integ-
rity.
At Masonville, New York, on the 10th of
October, 1883, was celebrated the marriage
of Mr. Kochtitzky to Miss Jennie B. Smith,
who is a daughter of Fredei-ick W. Smith, of
Masonville, New York. The paternal grand-
father of Mrs. Kochtitzky was Hazor Smith.
who was a son of Darius Smith, a scion of
one of the oldest colonial families, the
original progenitor of the name in America
having immigrated hither from England in
the year 16.34. Various representatives of
the Smith family have figured prominently
in public and military affairs from the
colonial wars down to the present time. Mr.
and Mrs. Kochtitzky have four children,
whose names and respective dates of birth
are here recorded, — Irma Electa, born Feb-
ruary 17, 1885; Oscar Frederick, November
8, 1886; Edna Leigh, November 25, 1892;
and John Shidler, June 12, 1897. All the
children are at home.
In their religious affiliations the Kochtitzky
family are consistent members of the Presby-
terian church and in a fraternal way Mr.
Kochtitzky is connected with the time-
honored Masonic order. In politics he is a
stanch Democrat. "While undoubtedly he
has not been without that lionorable ambi-
tion which is so powerful and useful as an
incentive to activity in public affairs, he re-
gards the pursuits of private life as beinsc in
themselves abundantly worthy of his best
efforts. In community affairs he is active
and influential and his support is readily and
generously given to many measures for the
general progress and improvement, liis
life history is certainly worthy of commen-
dation and emulation, for along honorable
and straightforward lines he has won suc-
cess which crowns his efforts and which
makes him one of the substantial residents of
Cape Girardeau.
George Henry Otto is Washington's phe-
nomenally successful merchant and repre-
sents one of the early families of Franklin
county. He was born in the to\\-n of Wash-
ington, March 1, 1868, whither his father,
W. H. Otto, came with bis partaits as a child.
The advent of the family in the United States
dates from the time the subject's grand-
father, Henry Otto, brought his household
out of Prussia, crossed the Atlantic on a sail-
ing vessel and established himself on the
banks of the JMissouri river in Franklm
county, which was to be his future home.
Here his son, W. H. Otto, grew to manhood,
received a limited education and enlisted in
the cause of the Union at the time of the
Civil war. He carried on a mercantile busi-
ness here for many years and passed away
in the early yeare of the present centuiy.
He was a Republican of unalterable convic-
tion and the part he took in public affairs
was only such as every intelligent voter
gives. He married Catherine Baumann, who
was, like himself, of German origin, and this
estimable lady still survives him, making her
residence at Washington. Of the issue of
their union William H. Otto, of New Haven,
is the eldest ; and next in order of birth are
E. H., of Washington ; George H., subject of
this record; Mrs. August H. Breckenkamp,
Mrs. Addie Menanwerth and Jlrs. F. H.
Stumpf, all of Washington.
Washington is fortunate in possessing
many enterprising citizens who claim the
locality as their birthplace and who have
paid it the highest compliment within their
power by electing to remain permanently
within its borders. Such is George H. Otto,
who is one of the number Washington is
proud to claim as native sons. He received
his education in the public and parochial
schools and at a very early age began upon
a mercantile apprenticeship as an assistant
in his father's store. He proved faithful
and efficient in small things and was given
more and more to do. His tastes as well as
his abilities were commercial and he had
little difficulty in deciding upon a vocation,
738
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
for he followed in the parental footsteps.
His present success has come from the most
modest beginnings, for when he engaged in
business as the successor of his father in
1893 his capital was only eighty dollars, and
his small business occupied a modest store
half a block south of that piece of ground
upon which his large department store has
since appeared, a monument to his executive
ability, progressive and modern methods
and the satisfaction he has given in his deal-
ings with the public. In his business are em-
braced the departments of furniture, carpets,
draperies and wall decorations, and there is
also an undertaking depaiiment. His stock
is exceedingly large and well chosen and
completely fills his three-story building.
This, together with his elegant home and
other .iudicious investments, constitute the
accumulations of a career of strenuous com-
mercial effort of less than twenty years.
Mr. Otto is a man of diverse interests and
an.y enterprise is indeed fortunate which has
the benefit of his counsel. He is associated
with several institutions of large scope and
importance, being president of the Washing-
ton Building and Loan Association; presi-
dent of the Washington Water and Electric
Light Company; a director of the Bank of
Washington; and a director of the Commer-
cial Club. In the last named organization he
is chairman of the advertising committee and
was instrumental in bringing about the loca-
tion here of the Washington branch of the
shoe factory of Roberts, Johnson & Rand. He
is interested in bringing to Washington cult-
ure and all higher advantages possible and
he was one of the founders of that greatly
appreciated institution, the Washington Pub-
lic Library, of which he serves at the present
time as a director. He is, in short, an able
exponent of the progressive spirit and strong
initiative ability which have caused the place
to forge so rapidly forward of late years in
every direction and he holds an unassailable
position as a remarkably progressive business
man and a loyal citizen. He has done much to
further the material and civic development
and upbuilding of the attractive city in
which he resides and in which he has
achieved success of distinctive and worthy
order.
Mr. Otto was married, November 15, 1893,
in Washington, to ^liss Pauline Kueckens, a
daughter of Burchard Kueckens, of St. Louis.
They share their handsome and commodious
^'ou^e with four cliildren, namely : Esther,
aged seventeen; Walter II., aged fifteen;
Paulina, aged six; and Henry, aged three.
The third child, George H., died at the age
of five years. Mr. and Mrs. Otto are affiliated
with the Lutheran church.
Edward Davis ^IcAnally. It is a signifi-
cant fact that the majority of men who have
made successes in the business world and
many of the professional men who have
come to the fi'ont were the sons of farmers.
At present our country's best educators are
advocating military training for boys as a
means of increasing their efficiency. Expe-
rience shows that in the past most of the
men who have made successes have orig-
inated on the farm. They learn many les-
sons there that they could not learn any-
where else. They learn the habit of early
rising; they are accustomed to simplicity of
food and customs ; they are given work to
do and are made to realize the consequences
of neglect, thus early coming to feel respon-
sibility. These are a few of the advantages
that come to a boy from his early life on a
farm. In addition to these, the chances are
that he will be possessed of a healthy body,
due to his open air life.
Edward Davis ]\IeAnally is an instance of
the above conclusions. He was born Novem-
ber 16, 1884, four miles south of Kennett.
His father, J. T. JIcAnally, was born in
Craighead county, Arkansas, in 1859, on
the second of May. He was the son of a
farmer and was born on a farm. When he
was only three years old his parents
brought him to Dunklin county so that his
earliest recollections cluster around this
coimty, where he attended the little old log
subscription school house near Vineit, in
the northern part of Grand Prairie. He had
an older brother stationed at Bloomfield and
tie remembered the northern and the south-
ern soldiers and his fears of both. When
he was only eight j'cars old his father died,
the widow following him in three years.
Thus the son was doubly bereaved while
most in need of parental care. His older
brother, J. D. McAnally, did his very best
to take the parents' place, taking his young
brother into his home, where he had his
doctor's office. J. T. made his home with
his brother for several, years, during which
time he studied medicine, but he never
practiced, not finding the profession to his
liking. J. T. McAnally l)ought one hundred
and sixty acres of land of which eight}"
1143052
'^c^o'-. ^. ?7-l'' ^n.xl^^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
r39
acres are in cultivation and which he still
operates. Previously he had been engaged
in the mercantile business in Vincit for sev-
eral years. The company in which he held
stock discontinued business and he then
devoted his entire attention to farming. Of
his farm he cleared some forty acres, prac-
tically digging that part- out of the woods
and there built a house and farm buildings.
He was a member of the Farmers' Union
and is widely known, as he is one of the old-
est residents of the countj'. He married
while living at Vincit, Donna Hale, a native
of Tennessee. Four children were born to
this union, Edward, Thomas, ]Mamie and
Mary Belle. In 1896 Mrs. McAn^ally died,
and in 1891 he married again, his wife being
Carrie Buckner, of Kennett. His second
wife has borne him six children, Ruth, Dee,
Trible, Alton, Zada and James. Mr. ilcAn-
ally is a Democrat and intensely interested
in politics, but with no desire for political
honors for himself; all his energies are ex-
pended for others. He is a member of the
Christian church at Kennett, where he is a
most earnest worker.
Edward D. McAnally has spent practically
all of his life on the farm. He received his
early education in the rural schools, later
attending the Kennett high school and he
graduated from the Cape Girardeau normal
school in the class of 1909. During the short
time that has elapsed ' since his graduation
he taught in the rural schools and then was
principal of the south ward school in Ken-
nett. at the same time being the athletic di-
rector in the high school. On April 4, 1911,
young as he is, he was elected county super-
intendent, assuming the duties of the office on
April 10th. The district contains seventy-
eight schools and naturally the superintend-
ent must be a man of acknowledged executive
ability. Such the Democrats were convinced
Mr. McAnally is. and during his short term
since his election his actions have .iustified
his election, as he has made good to an ex-
tent that surprised even his warmest advo-
cates. If we were to predict we should say
that Mr. JIcAnally has a great future before
him. The profession he has chosen is one
that calls forth the highest qualities in a man
and is productive of great good. It is in the
schools that the future of our nation lies.
Dunklin county stands high in the state as a
commercial mart: it has professional men of
no mean calibre and it has boys and girls in
abundance who will be the citizens of the
future. To a large extent, therefore, the
future of Dunklin county rests with the
superintendent. A tremendous responsibil-
ity, but we believe that Mr. McAnally is
equal to the burden and prophesy a glorious
future for the county.
David A. Whitexer. This gentleman, who
is a prominent young citizen and farmer of
Bollinger county, ^Missouri, is one of the
progressive and up-to-date representatives of
the great basic industry. He claims this
county as his birthplace and none more than
he is interested in its prosperity. He was
born on the 20th day of August, 1878, and
is the son of Henry B. and Eliza C. Whitener,
the mother's maiden name having been Bol-
linger and both parents were natives of this
state. David was reared upon his father's
homestead, gaining his education in the dis-
trict schools and spending a great portion of
his time assisting in the manifold tasks to be
encountered upon every farm. Like most
farmer's sons, he learned by experience that
there is never a shortage of work upon the
farm and in this way he secured that thor-
ough training in his chosen calling which has
since stood him in such good stead. In 1900
he started out in life independently, begin-
ning agricultural operations on one hundred
and sixty acres of land deeded to him by his
father. This is a valuable tract and is situ-
ated near Castor Post Office. Here he re-
sided for two years and at the end of that
period sold it to advantage. In 1902 he and
his father built a grist mill at ^Marquand and
for six years he devoted his time to the con-
duct of this enterprise. On September 15.
1905, his father died and Mr. Whitener sold
out his milling interests and again made him-
self the proprietor of a farming property,
buying four hundred acres in association with
his brother, Robert Whitener. Here they
engage in farming and stock raising and have
met with very definite success. The subject
is a Democrat.
Mr. Whitener was happily married on the
eleventh day of August, 1909, his chosen lady
being ^liss Lizzie Hughes, daughter of
Michael and Mary (Vance) Hughes, natives
of the state of ^Missouri. ]\Irs. Whitener, who
is one of Bollinger county's popular and ad-
mirable young women, is a native daughter
of the county, her birth having occurred
within its pleasant boundaries on the sixth
day of November, 1886. Her paternal grand-
parents were named Leonard and Mary (Ri-
r40
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
ley) Hughes and were natives of Germany
and Ireland, respectively. Like her husband,
Mrs. Whitener was reared upon the farm and
attended the district schools. She began to
teach school in 1902 in Bollinger and for six
years continued in this useful capacity, prov-
ing a faithful and intelligent instructor.
She and her husband are held in high regard
in the community in which their interests are
centered.
O. B. Harris is one of the succ
farmers of Southeastern Missouri, where he
has maintained his residence for a period of
forty years, and that he has attained a high
standing in the community is the result of his
own efforts. There is a deep satisfaction in
the thought that ever.ything a man owns is
the result of his own work and thought, and
such satisfaction Mr. Harris is justified in
feeling.
0. B. Harris was born on the 14th of Oc-
tober, 1857, in the central part of the state
of Tennessee. The scene of his nativity was
the farm on which his father had lived and
prospered for many years, but at the time
when Oliver Harris was born, both agri-
cultural and commercial interests were very
much disorganized, on account of the threat-
ened hostilities between the north and the
south. In 1861, when the smouldering em-
bers flamed into open war, the elder Mr. Har-
ris decided to move from Tennessee and try
his fortunes further north. He would have
liked to take part in the struggle for eman-
cipation and himself assist in freeing the ne-
groes, in whose midst he had lived and whose
slavery he had witnessed, but he realized the
necessity of making a Jiving for his family,
and so disposed of the little farm for such
money as it would realize, selected such fur-
niture from the old homestead as he felt was
a])solutely necessary, bought a wagon on
which he packed his few belongings, and
started with his wife and child on the jour-
ney to Illinois. He remained in that state
for a period of ten years, but never felt that
it was his permanent home, and in the spring
of 1870 moved to Missouri, where he believed
the agricultural advantages as well as the
educational conditions were better. He set-
tled in Dunklin county, two miles west of
Caruth, on a farm owned by Alexander
Douglas, god-father of the author of this
work. After four years spent on this farm
Mr. Harris rented a desirable tract in the
vicinity and continued to engage in agri-
culture until the time of his death, in 1892,
his demise occurring two years after that of
his wife.
Oliver Harris spent the first four years
of his life on the farm in Tennessee where
he was boi'n, but he remembers little about
his southern home. He has indistinct recol-
lections of the jolting wagon in which he
traveled from Tennessee to Illinois, and of
the difficulties which his father encountered
on the journey, but has a vivid remembrance
of the school which he attended in the Prairie
state. The schools in the district where the
family lived were then poor, and, as much
on that account as any other, his parents
went to Missouri, where the educational ad-
vantages \vere much better. The boy, how-
ever, was not able to take advantage of the
opportunities there afforded, as his father
needed his help on the farm, and he left
school after the removal of the family to
Caruth. When Oliver Harris was twenty
years of age he started to work around for
the neighbors, for which he received the sum
of fifteen dollars a month at first. He later
received more remuneration and was able to
save most of the mone}' he earned and in-
vested it in land. He now owns a good farm
of eighty acres, worth seventy-five dollars an
acre, and has made all the improvements on
this land himself. He has erected a good
barn, built fences and fertilized the land un-
til it is very productive. For the most part
he raises corn and cotton, to which his laud
is admirably suited.
On the 27th of January, 1878, Mr. Harris
was united in marriage to Miss Dora Lacy,
who is a life-long resident of Kennett. One
daughter, Annie, was born to the union, and
she married Will Bass; they have one son,
Buel B., born in February, 1910. Both she
and her husband live on the farm with Mr.
Harris.
Mr. Harris is a Democrat, but he has never
felt that he could spare the time to be a pol-
itician; he is, however, always anxious to see
liis party win at the elections, and is deeply
interested in the local improvements of his
county and state. He is affiliatel with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Ken-
nett, and has a high standing with the mem-
bers of the local lodge. What his career
might have been if his parents had never
come to Missouri it is hard to say, but he
would have made a success of life, no matter
where his lines were cast, and he has no rea-
son to be dissatisfied with the results of his
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
(41
labors in Dunklin county, as he has made
money and reputation, and has won regard
and friends among its inhabitants.
George Harold Bond, postmaster of Crys-
tal City, Jefferson county, is one of the bright
young men of the state, whose family is es-
peciall}- well known in connection with the
public affairs of Ste. Genevieve county. His
grandfather, George Bond, was one of the
stanch and popular pioneers of that section
of the state, having been a resident at St.
Mary's for more than eighty-two years. In
the Civil war he served with credit as col-
onel of state militia, and for many years was
one of the leading and honored merchants of
the town. Interest in the public affairs of
his county kept pace with the attention which
he paid to his private affairs, with the re-
sult that he was often called to participate
in the legislation of county and state. The
two terms which he served as legislative rep-
resentative from Ste. Genevieve county added
much to both his solid reputation for ability
and to his name as a straight-forward and
honorable man. His death on January 11,
1911, removed from the community a strong,
broad and upright character, who has justly
earned both respect and affection.
George C. Bond, the postmaster's father, is
also widely known and universally respected
in Ste. Genevieve county. He spent his
earlier business years as a commercial trav-
eler, but for some time past has been engaged
in quarrying limestone for the Pittsburg
Plate Glass Company. For many years he
has been one of the most active and influen-
tial Republicans in Ste. Genevieve county,
having served as chairman of the county con-
vention upon numerous occasions and been
mayor of St. IMary 's for several tei'ms ; and
this despite the fact that he has never sought
political position of any kind.
In 1887 George C. Bond was united in
marriage with Miss Cora M. Rozier, by whom
he has become the father of George Harold,
the immediate subject of this sketch ; Valley
S.. Anna May and Katherine.
George H. Bond, who was bom at St.
]\Iary's July 27, 1888, received his early edu-
cation in the parochial and public schools of
his native place, after which he went to St.
Louis and pursued a course at the Jones &
Henderson Business College.. Returning to
St. ]\rary's. he secured a position, as book-
keeper and cashier, with the Rozier Store
Company, which he most creditably retained
for six years. Mr. Bond then moved to Crys-
tal City, where for a time he was identified
with the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company.
His executive ability and probity of charac-
ter had, in the meantime, so commended them-
selves to the good graces of his townsmen
that he was warmly pressed for the postmas-
tership, and his appointment by President
Taft, during the Sixty-second congress of
1911 met with general approval, which has
been strengthened by his administration
since. Like his father and his grandfather,
the postmaster is a Republican and a stead-
fast Catholic; also an active member of the
Woodmen of the World and the Modern
Woodmen of America.
Joseph A. Ernst, proprietor and pub-
lisher of the St. Genevieve Herald, has had
an interesting career. He has always felt
that education was a man's best capital and
has lost no opportunity in helping to educate
othere. IMen who have achieved legitimate
success without education obtained in schools
and universities are numerous and many of
them in America try to belittle education,
but in the years to come the so called self
made man, competing in the battle of busi-
ness with scholarly rivals will go down to cer-
tain defeat. Mr. Ernst feels this and has not
only been highly educated himself, but he
seeks to be of service to others who have been
less fortunate than he.
Joseph A. Ernst was born at Westphalen
in Germany, December 10, 1836. His father,
Francis Ernst, was a native of the same place
and was a builder by occupation. His wife,
Mary Ann (Wilmes) lirnst was also a native
of Germany, where she and her husband both
died. They had seven children, one son and
six daughters.
Joseph's boyhood days were spent in his
native town, where he attended the public
school. After he had finished his school course,
he had the desire for further education and
his father, ambitious for his onl.v son, made
great sacrifices that he might send his son to
the university. He took a classical course,
graduating in 1857. The following year he
came to America, landing in New York city.
He went direct to Alton, near St. Louis,
thence to Cincinnati. He taught school for
many years, from 1862 to 1886. He taught
in Ohio and Indiana, coming to IMissouri in
1868. He went direct to St. Genevieve county
and taught school about eight miles from St.
Genevieve for about six vears. Then he
742
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
moved to the city of St. Genevieve, where he
taiitrht in the public school and became prin-
cipal of the St. Genevieve schools, which posi-
tion he held until 1886. In 1882, in addition
to his school duties, he established the St.
Gent vie I'e Herald, an independent paper
which he still publishes. In 1886 he resigned
his position in the schools and gave his entire
time to journalistic work.
On the 26th day of September, 1865, he
married ^Miss Adeline M. Hechinger, the
daughter of Protase and Abigail (Lord)
Hechinger, a German who settled near Cin-
cinnati. Ohio, where his daughter Adeline was
born. JIarch 17, 1843. She died October 8,
1901, having borne two sons and one daugh-
ter who grew to maturity. The eldest was
Frank J. A., the second John E. and the
youngest Florence A., now the wife of Ed-
ward S. Cross, of St. Genevieve county.
:\Ir. Ernst is one of the old settlers of St.
Genevieve county and from the first has been
greatly interested in public affairs. He is
personally a Republican, but he tries to keep
his own political views out of his paper, mak-
ing it truly independent. He is one of the
stockholders of the St. Genevieve Brewing
and Lighting Association. During the fifty
years that ilr. Ernst has been in the I'nited
States he has become well known as an edu-
cator and also as a journalist. He has re-
ceived benefits from the Americans, but he
has bestowed many more. He is popular
with young and old, his life having been such
as to command respect as well as admiration.
A. ^I. Barrett, resident of Lorance town-
ship, is well and favorably known as a farmer
and a progressive business man. The one
characteristic which has done more than any-
thing else to give to the United States its
agricultural and commercial supremacy is
enterprise. The man in Lorance township
who has this characteristic to a remarkable
extent is ]Mr. Barrett. By enterprise is meant
the ability to hustle, to make things go. to
bring things to pass that a less capable man
would deem impossible.
The birth of A. M. Barrett occurred August
19, 1877, in Bollinger county. He is a son of
S. Houston and Jlissouri Barrett, the father
a native of Tennessee and the mother of ilis-
souri birth and of North Carolina ancestry.
When S. Houston Barrett was a mere lad his
parents moved from Tennessee to Missouri;
there lie was educated, there engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits, and there he was married.
ilr. and ilrs. S. H. Barrett became the par-
ents of six children, w'ho were carefully
trained and educated.
A. M. Barrett was the fifth in order of
birth ; he received his educational training in
Bollinger county, and made such good use of
his opportunities that at the age of eighteen
years he was adjudged competent to instruct.
Beginning to teach in 1893, he spent the en-
suing eight years as an educator, while at
the same time he studied as much as he could
and in the summer time he was engaged in
agricultural pursuits. In 1904 he abandoned
the pedagogical field and during the last ten
years has farmed continuously. However, his
is such an active nature that he is compelled
to be occupied in some more exacting enter-
prise and while he devotes a fair share of his
energies and attentions to his farm, he is a
traveling salesman for the J. R. Watkins
IMedical Company, of Winona, ^Minnesota.
He is continually adding to his responsibil-
ities ; in the year 1909 he bought one hundred
acres of land on Hog Creek, and in 1911 he
purchased a tract of sixty-eight acres.
In 1906 Mr. Barrett was united in mar-
riage to Miss I\Iay Huskey, daughter of
Thomas Huskey and his wife. Amanda, who
reside near to the Barrett farm. Two chil-
dren have been born to the union of Mr. and
Mrs. Barrett, — Thelma L., born October 1,
1907 ; and Albert R., the date of whose birth
was November 5, 1910.
In a fraternal way Mv. Barrett is affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and with the Masonic order, holding mem-
bership with the Blue Lodge. No. 545,
Ancient Free and Acepted JMasons. He has
many friends not only in Lorance township,
but throughout the whole of Bollinger
county.
William H. Lewis, of Flat River, is well
known through the lead belt as a prominent
Democrat and former member of the state
legislature and a newspaper man. He was
born at St. Jo, Texas, in 1879, but has lived
in Southeastern ^Missouri practically all his
life. His father, the late Shelby H. Lewis,
who died at Farmington in 1899, was likewise
a newspaper man and was editor of the
Farmington HeraJd at the time of his death.
He was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, in
1833. He was a verj^ active Democrat and a
member of various party committees. He
married ]\Iiss Elizabeth Hornsey, and three
of their eight children are living: — Dr. James
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
743
J., of Texas; Miss Hattie; and William H.
The father was a member of the Masonic
order.
Coming to jMissouri during his childhood,
William H. Lewis received his education in
the common schools and at Carleton College
in Farming-ton, and during most of his career
has been identified with Southeastern Mis-
souri journalism. He was formerly proprie-
tor of two Democratic weeklies in St. Fran-
cois county and also connected with papers
at Piedmont and Poplar Bluff. For several
sessions he was clerk of the state senate and
in 1905 was assistant secretary. During
1907-08 he represented St. Francois county
in the legislature. As chairman of the house
committee on mines and mining and member
of the labor and printing committees, he took
an active part in the legislation of that ses-
sion, and was author of several labor and
mining bills. At the last county election he
was defeated by a narrow margin for the
oflSce of recorder in a county that had given
heavy -majorities for the Republican candi-
dates for several elections. Mr. Lewis is a
member of the Masonic order, the Knights of
Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of Amer-
ica.
George E. Conrad. Although the man
without ancestors who succeeds in making his
own way in the world has doubtless a great
deal to contend with, he is without the obliga-
tions which are self-imposed on the descend-
ant of a family which has always amounted
to something. The untranslatable French
phrase, "noblesse oblige" is at the founda-
tion of many actions, and is a man's safe-
guard if he is conscientious, although at times
he may chafe under the obligations. George
E. Conrad, the well-known attorney and
farmer, whose family has been so closely iden-
tified with the history of Southeastern ]\Iis-
souri for many years, has not only lived so
as to satisfy his immediate family and his fel-
low men. but has also lived up to the stand-
ards set forth by his ancestors. He has made
his life count for something — has not only
made a competency for himself and his fam-
ily, but has done honor to the name he bears,
has been of assistance to individuals and has
aided in the advancement of his state and
county.
ilr. Conrad's birth occurred on the 22nd
day of March, 1852, in Bollinger county
(originally Cape Girardeau county). His an-
cestor. Peter Conrad, the founder of the Con-
rads in America, belong to an old
family of ancient lineage ; he was educated in
Prussia, where he learned the weaving trade,
and while still a young man he immigrated to
America with his two sons, Jacob and Ru-
dolph, locating in North Carolina, his home
until his death. Jacob settled in Pennsyl-
vania, near Pittsburg, while Rudolph re-
mained in North Carolina all his life. His son
Peter was born in Lincoln county. North Caro-
lina, as he was his son David Rudolph, father
of George E., and in 1820 the father and ten-
year-old son migrated to Cape Girardeau
county, now Bollinger county, ilissouri; re-
sided for two years on Crooked Creek, two
miles below Lutesville, then permanently set-
tled at Apple Creek in Perry county, where
Peter Conrad remained until his death. In
1833 his son David Rudolph bought a Span-
ish grant which had been confirmed to Freder-
ick Slinkard on Big White AVater, Bollinger
county, survey No. 801, and there he resided
on his six hundred and forty acre farm un-
til his death, in the month of November,
1890, at the age of seventy-nine (born Feb-
ruary 5, 1811). During the years that Mr.
David Rudolph Conrad lived in Bollinger
county he was one of its most esteemed resi-
dents and his fellow citizens showed their ap-
preciation of his abilities and lofty character
by bestowing honors on him. For many
years he was justice of the peace; he was
county judge from 1852 until 1861. He was
captured in October, 1861, and held prisoner
some seven weeks by Colonel Jeff Thompson,
the noted Confederate of this section. Sub-
sequently he was elected to the office of state
senator and served in that capacity from
1866 to 1870. The original land which he
purchased on Big White Water is divided and
is now the property of difl'erent members of
the family. Mr. David Rudolph Conrad had
thirteen children, seven of whom are living.
]Mr. George E. Conrad is no less well con-
nected on his mother's side of the house. Her
maiden name was Mary Bollinger, the daugh-
ter of Moses Bollinger and Elizabeth Statler.
Moses Bollinger was a son of Mathias — broth-
er of ]\Iajor Bollinger, who led many of the
first settlers into Bollinger county, which
was so named in honor of the brave Major.
The Bollinger family are of Swiss descent.
David R. Conrad's mother (grandmother
of George E.), was an Abernathy, wdiile
Peter Conrad's mother (George E. Conrad's
paternal grandfather's mother), belonged
to the old family of Shell. With these few
744
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .MISSOURI
fragments from the ancestry of the Conrad
family we will proceed to relate a few facts
in regard to the life of George E. Conrad
himself.
Mr. Conrad remained on the old homestead
until he had attained his majority, before
which time he had received an excellent
public school education and at the age of
twenty had been appointed to the office of
assistant county clerk, under his brother J.
J. Conrad, who was the worthy county clerk
in Bollinger county from 1866 until 1875.
In the month of September, 1873, Mr. George
Conrad entered the Missouri State Uni-
versity and for the ensuing ten years his
time was divided between teaching school,
farming for one year and studying in the
literary and the law departments of the
above " named institution. In 1882 he re-
ceived the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and
Principal of Pedagogics and the following
year he was graduated from the law school
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In
1884, a full-fledged lawyer, he commenced his
legal practice in Marble Hill ; the very same
year was elected to the office of prosecuting
"attorney, serving a term of two years. He
was again elected in 1906, and re-elected in
1908 ; it was during these two terms that a
quietus was put upon the illegal sale of in-
toxicants. It is needless to say that his
service in the above mentioned capacity was
eminently satisfactory. His conduct of the
prosecutor's office was generally satis-
factory, as has been his whole legal practice
—covering a period of more than a quarter
of a century.
Mr. Conrad married Miss Flora Jamison,
daughter of B. F. Jamison, of Bollinger
county, where he resided since 1876, at
which time he migrated from Indiana. Mr.
and Mrs. Conrad have a family of six chil-
dren:— Rhoda J., born March 14, 1894;
Rudolph Rhadamanthus, born June 26, 1896 ;
Caswallen Caractacus, born November 8,
1898; Plutarch Pericles, born November 29,
1900; Benton Bollinger, born June 6, 1905;
and Mary O'Neal, born April 22, 1911. The
family "attend the Presbyterian church,
where they are held in high esteem. Mr.
Conrad is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, of the Modern Wood-
men of America, of the Mutual Protective
League and of the Improved Order of Red
Men.
In addition to his professional repiitation
Mr. Conrad is also well-known as a farmer.
He owns one hundred and twenty acres of
land between Marble Hill and Lutesville,
his residence being in ^larble Hill. He also
owns a tract of one hundred and sixty acres
of land in the southwestern corner of the
county, and there are few farms in the coun-
try which are more admirably conducted
than those which Mr. Conrad personally
supervises. Thus in legal and in agricultural
realms Mr. Conrad has become a man of note
in the county, a man who is respected for his
own sake and not on account of his ancestry,
who is liked because of his own genial person-
ality.
Elton W. Poe. A man of versatile talents,
possessing much mechanical skill and in-
genuity, and endowed with far more than
average business tact and ability, Elton W.
Poe holds a place of note among the leading
citizens of Senath, where, within the past few
years, he has built up an extensive and lucra-
tive trade as a dealer in furniture, in the sea-
son of 1910 having sold sixteen car loads. A
native of Missouri, he was born on a farm in
Washington county, June 22, 1871, a son of
Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Poe, who located at
Senath in 1910.
Receiving his preliminary education in the
public schools of his native county, Elton W.
Poe accompanied his parents to Bollinger
county, Missouri, when eleven years old, and
was there a resident ten years, during which
time he continued his school life for awhile,
and assisted his father on the farm. He sub-
sequently served an apprenticeship of three
years at the blacksmith's trade and at the
trade of a wagon maker. Locating in Stod-
dard county about 1894, Mr. Poe worked as a
farm laborer six months, and then went to
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he became pro-
ficient at the trade of a painter and paper
hanger, after which he traveled throughout
the country west of the Mississippi for two
years, gaining wisdom and experience in his
wanderings. Tired of roaming about, he
joined his parents at their new home in Stod-
dard county, and in 1896, having helped his
father on the farm for a year, l\Ir. Poe came
to Dunklin county in search of congenial em-
ployment. He subsequently took unto him-
self a helpmeet, and a year later, in 1900, lo-
cated in Senath, without a penny in the
world that he could call his own. Securing
work in the shop of Mr. McDaniels, a black-
smith, he remained with him two years, re-
ceiving a dollar a day for his labor. Saving
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
745
some money while there, Mr. Poe in 1902
opened a smithy of his own, putting in one
hundred and twenty-five dollars worth of
tools, and in its management has met with well-
merited success. As his large and constantly
increasing patronage demanded more efficient
service, he added to his tools and equipments
until he has now machinery and appliances
valued at two thousand, five hundred dollars,
his shop being one of the best and most up-
to-date of any similar plant in Southeastern
Missouri. A few years ago Mr. Poe pur-
chased a grist mill, in which he employs three
men, the mill having a capacity of fifteen
bushels an hour.
In 1906 ilr. Poe, with characteristic enter-
prise and ambition, rented a building on
Main street, and there for about two j^ears
dealt in second hand furniture. Succeeding
far beyond his expectations in his venture,
he purchased a lot, erected a brick building,
forty by one hundred feet, and in 1909 es-
tablished his present mercantile business,
which is one of the largest of the kind in this
part of the county, his stock of furniture be-
ing choice in quality and his sales unusually
large for a town no larger than Senath. In
addition to owning his store, smithy and mill,
Mr. Poe has a half acre of land in his home
lot and a substantial residence. This prop-
erty he has acquired by his own energy,
laboring in season and out, sometimes by
night as well as day, having done much of
the work on his home by lamp light.
Mr. Poe married, in 1899, in Dunklin
county, Hetta Freeman, who was born in
Stoddard county, near Bloomfield, and into
their pleasant home three children have made
their advent, namely: Bernice, Elton A. and
Vivian X. In his political affiliations 'Sir. Poe
is a Republican, but has never sought public
office. Fraternally he is a member of Senath
Lodge, No. 513, of A. F. & A. M., of Senath ;
of Helm Chapter, R. A. M., of Kennett; of
Campbell Council, R. & S. M. ; of the Valley
of Saint Louis Consistory, of Corinth ; of
:JIoolah Temple. A. A. O" X. M. S.. of St.
Louis ; and of Eutopia Lodge, No. 283, I. 0.
0. F.
JosiAH M. White. Among the useful,
highly honored and influential citizens of this
part of Missouri is Josiah il. Wliite, county
clerk of Madison county. He is a thoroughly
representative man and as such is well en-
titled to place in this compilation. He lias
held the important office above mentioned
since January 1, 1907, and his services have
been of the most enlightened and satisfactory
character. He is a native sou of ^ladison
countj% his birth having occurred at what is
known as White Springs on March 6, 1858,
the son of William B. M. and Sarah (Kelly)
White. The father was born in 1829 in the
.state of Tennessee and was the son of the
Rev. Elias White, a minister of the ^Methodist
Episcopal church who came to Southeastern
Missouri about 1835. He was a very well-
known minister and devoted his life to the
cause he represented. He was native to
Giles county, Tennessee. William B. M.
White had two brothers and four sisters, all
of whom found their way to this state. The
eldest brother, John White, served in the
Mexican war and now all of the number are
deceased with the exception of the subject's
father. He was reared in this vicinity and
engaged in farming and in the lumber busi-
ness here and near Fredericktown. He was
a soldier in the Confederate army, serving
under Colonel Kitchens for three years. His
military career was somewhat adventurous
and he was captured about the close of the
war.
Sarah Kelly, mother of tlie immediate
subject of this record, was born in j\Iadison
county, and died in January, 1902. She was
a daughter of Robert Kelly, who was of Irish
descent. That gentleman settled in ]\Iadison
county and followed agricultural pursuits.
Sarah was very active in the affairs of the
Methodist Episcopal church. She had two
sisters and four brothers, all of whom have
passed on to the L'ndiscovered Country.
Josiah ]M. White is one of a family con-
sisting of three brothers and one sister, all of
whom are living at the present time. Rufus
T. is a hotel proprietor of Ironton, Missouri;
Robert E. is engaged in the lumber business
at Marcfuand, Missouri"; the sister. Miss
Emma, resides with her father at Frederick-
town, Missouri.
Mr. White finds this section replete with
manj^ associations, for here he was born and
reared and he resided here continuously un-
til about the age of twenty years. He then
spent some time in Iron and Saint Francois
counties, principally in the former, where he
engaged in mining and in the lumber busi-
ness, in which he continued until 1902. He
then embarked in a new line of business. —
the mercantile — at ^Marquand, Madison coun-
ty, and his identification with that line of
enterprise continued until his acceptance of
746
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
his present office in 1907. He is a Democrat
in politics and is very enthusiastic in his en-
dorsement of the policies and principles of
the party of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleve-
land.
]Mr. White was united in marriage to Miss
Jessie Newcum, a native of Madison county,
and a daughter of Bennett Newcum, a con-
tractor and carpenter, now deceased. He
was one of the early residents hereabout.
His wife died in 190S. Mrs. White is a mem-
ber of the Christian church, but her husband
favors the Methodist Episcopal. They share
their pleasant home .with two daughters aiid
a son, namely: Claude, now of St. Louis,
where he is employed ; and Florence and Lil-
lian, who are at home.
Mr. White is a Royal Arch Mason and is
also affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of
America. The family maintains its home at
Southport.
Melbourne Smith, editor of the Lead Belt
News, is one of the able representatives of the
Fourth Estate in this part of the state, the
publication of which he is the head standing
as a fit moulder of public opinion and re-
corder of the events of the many-sided life
of the community. One of our greatest
American writers has penned the lines
' ' There was a young fellow of excellent pith,
Fate tried to obscure him by naming him
Smith."
But in the case of the subject, as in that
of the hero of the couplet. Fate seems des-
tined to frustration in her nefarious designs.
Melbourne Smith is a native son of Mis-
souri, his birth having occurred at Marble
Hill, Bollinger county, on December 9, 1882.
He is the son of that well-known statesman
and lawyer, Madison R. Smith, member of
Congress from the Thirteenth district of Mis-
souri. The elder gentleman was born July
9, 1850, at Glen Allen, Missouri, and received
his preliminary education in the public
schools, later entering Central College at
Fayette, and preparing for the law under
Louis Ilouck, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
He was admitted to the bar at Marble Hill in
187-4 and he was united in marriage to Nan-
nie Leech of Cape Girardeau January 12,
1881. To this union five children were born,
namely: Melbourne, Alma, Taylor, Bab and
Buntie. The family removed to Farmington
about the year 1888 and there the head of the
house engaged in the practice of law. An
able man and one of high ideals of citizen-
ship, he soon received marked political pre-
ferment, representing his district in the state
Senate from 1887 until 1891 and giving most
loj-al and efficient service to his constituents.
He acted as reporter of the St. Louis Court
of Appeals from 1901 until 1904 and in 1907
reached the zenith of his career, going as rep-
resentative of the Thirteenth ]\Iissouri Dis-
trict to the Sixtieth Congress, his tenure of
office lasting from 1907 to 1909. The Hon.
]Mr. Smith is a stanch supporter of the prin-
ciples of Democracy and he is a prominent
ilason. The religious faith of the family is
that of the Southern Methodist church. Mad-
ison R. Smith is at the present time counsel
for the Federal Trust Company of St. Louis
and he also acts in the same capacity for the
Houck Railroads. He is located at Farming-
ton at the present time.
The early education of Melbourne Smith
was secured in the public schools of Farming-
ton and he subsequently attended a number
of well-known institutions. These were Elm-
wood Seminary and Carlton College of Farm-
ington ; Branham & Hughes School at Spring
Hill, Tennessee; and Central College at
Fayette, Missouri. He exhibited marked at-
tainments in scholarship and in 1902 re-
ceived the degree of A. B. from the last
named institution. After his graduation he
became connected in 1903 with the Eepubli-
can of Cape Girardeau. About a year later,
— on June 9, 1904, he accepted a position
on the St. Louis Republican and remained
with that well-known newspaper for the fol-
lowing three years. When his father was
sent to the National Assembly in Washing-
ton, D. C, Mr. Smith went with him as his
secretary and he remained in the national
capital during the session of 1907-1909. He
subseciuently became connected with the Fed-
eral Trust Company and remained with that
organization until Jlareh, 1911, when he es-
tablished himself upon a more independent
footing, by becoming editor and publisher of
the Lead Belt News, at Plat River. This
paper represents the political principles for
which the Messrs. Smith have ever main-
tained great loyalty, — the Democratic — and
is a live and excellently conducted sheet.
On June 26, 1908, Mr. Smith was united
in marriage to Miss Helen Albert, daughter
of L. J. Albert, president of the Bank of
Cape Girardeau. This happy union was of
brief duration, Mrs. Smith's demise occurring
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
(47
in March, 1909, at Farmington. She is sur-
vived by one son, Albert. Mr. Smith is an
earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal
church. South and holds membership in the
Masonic lodge. He is widely and favorably
known and stands as a valuable member of
society.
August H. Breckenkajip, secretary and
treasurer of the Missouri Meerschaum Com-
pany of Washington, is one of the native sons
of the county who have manifested their un-
usual loyalty to the section which gave them
birth by electing to remain permanently
■\\-ithin its pleasant boundaries. He was born
in the country near this city, November 22,
1866, and upon his christening day received
the entire patronymic of his father, August
H. Breckenkamp, Sr. The elder gentleman
was also a native of the state, Franklin
county being the scene of his nativity and its
date December 22, 1840. He passed to the
Great Beyond in August, 1904. His parents
came to the United States from Germany in
the year of his birth and settled among their
countrymen in Franklin county. The name
of the grandfather was Louis. In his de-
scendant, the subject, are apparent those ex-
cellent characteristics which make Germany
one of America's favorite sources of immi-
gration.
August H. Breckenkamp, Sr., received
such education as the primitive IMissouri
schools of his day and generation afforded.
During the period of the Civil war he was
one of the militia ready for service upon call
of the Federal government and soon after the
attainment of peace he moved into Washing-
ton and there engaged in business. In
course of time he associated himself with J.
]\I. Degen in the organization of the Degen &
Breckenkamp Manufacturing Company, in
the planing mill, lumber and flour mill busi-
ness, which concern, some years later, united
with the Detmold Pipe Works and this com-
bine was ultimately absorbed by the H. Tibbe
& Sons Manufacturing Company, now known
as the Jlissouri ileerschaum Company. The
elder Mr. Breckenkamp was a Republican,
and there was nothing of public import at
Washington and in the surrounding country
in which he was not helpfull.v interested.
He was for several .vears public administrator
of Franklin county and gave service of the
most faithful and enlightened character. He
married Catherine Kappelmann, a daughter
of Henry Kappelmann and born at Buch-
holzhausen, Prussia, Germany. They became
the parents of the following children:
August H. ; Catherine, wife of E. A. Hopfer,
of Alma, Kansas; Edward, who died unmar-
ried; and Clara, now Mrs. A. E. Ritzmann,
of Washington, Missouri.
August H. Breckenkamp, Jr., immediate
subject of this biographical record, acquired
his education in the public schools and at the
age of eighteen he associated himself with E.
H. Otto, as a member of the firm of Otto &
Breckenkamp. After several years of this
association he entered the firm of Degen &
Breckenkamp, above referred to, and fol-
lowed its many vicissitudes to its final ab-
sorption by the Missouri Meerschaum Com-
pany, of which he is now secretary and treas-
urer. This cob pipe factor3^ represents one
of the old enterprises of Washington, its
establishment dating from the year 1878, and
it stands as a monument to H. Tibbe, its
author and founder. Its possession is of the
greatest importance to Washington, city and
county, providing a market for labor and for
that usually useless article — the com cob. It
does its share toward the general prosperity
and at the same time has experienced no
small success of its own. Mr. Breckenkamp
has served as a member of the city council of
Washington and gives heart and hand to the
men and measures of the Republican party,
with which he has been affiliated since his
earliest voting days.
Mr. Breckenkamp was married, January
15, 1888, to iliss Emily Otto, a sister of
George H. Otto, mentioned on other pages of
this work. She is a daughter of W. H. Otto.
Mr. and Mrs. Breckenkamp share their de-
lightful home with two sons. Otto and
August. The family are Lutherans in their
religious faith.
Henry Haynes. Thomas Jefferson is
credited with saj'ing, "Let the farmer for-
evermore be honored in his calling; for al-
though he labor in the earth, he is one of the
chosen people of God." Agriculture has
been the chief business of Mr. Haynes during
life and his industry, thrift and progressive-
ness have been rewarded with success mate-
rially, while his good citizenship has won
him the respect of the communit.y. Henry
Haynes was born in Bollinger county. IMis-
souri, on the 22nd day of October, 1855, and
is the son of Daniel J. and Sophia C. Haynes,
both natives of the state of Missouri. The
paternal grandfather was a son of ilathew
748
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and Fanny Haynes, who were born in North
Carolina and there lived out their useful
lives.
The immediate subject of this biographical
record was reared upon his father's home-
stead and there spent the roseate days of
boyhood and youth. He secured his educa-
tion in the public schools and when it came
to choosing a vocation he easily came to a de-
cision to follow in the paternal footsteps. He
made an independent start when in 1880 he
began agricultural operations on a part of
his father's farm near Castor, Missouri, the
same comprising one hundred and ten acres
of land. He prospered from the first and in
later years bought two hundred and forty
acres more, then giving the original one hun-
dred and ten acres to his son, C. A. Haynes.
He devotes his energies to general farming
and stock raising and he is interested in all
that tends to advance and unify the agricul-
tural element in this section of the great state
of Missouri.
Mr. Haynes was happily married on the
9th day of December, 1880, the lady to be-
come his wife being Miss Eliza C. Rickman,
daughter of James E. and Elizabeth Rick-
man, natives of Alabama and Missouri, re-
spectively. Their union has been blessed by
the birth of three children. James E., born
in 1881, took as his wife Eva Cooper and he
resides near Lutesville and is a merchant;
Charles A., born in 1884, is married to Clara
Shetby and is engaged in farming at his
grandfather's homestead; Bessie L., the
youngest member of the familj', born in 1894,
still resides beneath the home roof and is now
in college, fulfilling her desire for an educa-
tion.
Mr. Haynes and his wife are prominent
and helpful members of the Baptist church,
and the head of the house is in harmony with
the policies and principles of the Democratic
party, to which he has given his vote since he
first attained to his majority.
D. M. RiGDON, after starting out in life in
the pedagogical field, has turned his energies
to agriculture. Every year there are more
men who become farmers for themselves,
which is a very desirable condition of affairs.
It seems suitable that a man should receive
the rewards of his own labor and in no place
is this so much the case as on the farm.
D. M. Rigdon was born in Fayette county,
in the southern part of central Illinois, April
1, 187.3. Tlie first four years of his life were
spent on his father's farm, at which time the
family moved to Vandalia, where the son
went to school. In 1887 he moved to Bol-
linger county with his father, where he at-
tended the public school and later was one
year at the Maytield Smith Academy at ^lar-
ble Hill. For the next six years he taught
school in Bollinger, Stoddard and Dunklin
counties. In 1898 he moved to a little farm
of sixty-one acres which was owned by his
wife. After a little over a year had elapsed
he moved to the farm where he is at pres-
ent, two and three quarter miles south of
Kennett, where he bought one hundred and
twenty acres of land on credit. At the time
when he made the change, March, 1899, the
land was very much run down, but he has
cultivated it with as much care as he trained
the minds of his pupils in his teaching days.
He has built four miles of wire fence and the
place is now well drained. He has built a
barn sixtj'-eight by seventy-eight feet and
has put up farm buildings. He raises cot-
ton and corn for the most part, but he uses
a large part of his land for pasture, on which
are cattle, horses, mules and hogs, indeed all
kinds of live stock.
In 1898 he married Miss Melissa Thomas,
of Dunklin county. Three children have been
born to the union, Carl, Vivian and Fred.
Mr. Rigdon takes an interest in polities and
has been once a delegate to the Democratic
convention. He belongs to the Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons and Sirs. Rigdon is an
active member of the Christian church. She
was born in Tennessee, in 1869. a daughter of
J. E. Thomas, a prominent farmer and citi-
zen, and also a large land owner of Dunklin
county, and an early resident. He was a
Democrat and was the founder and a charter
member of the Christian church of his com-
munity. Mr. Rigdon lives a happy, contented
life, respected by his fellows and loved by all
his friends.
Z. T. Hicks. Noteworthy among the
thriving members of the mercantile com-
munity of Kennett is Z. T. Hicks, who has
achieved siiccess in his career through his
own efforts, his habits of industry and hon-
esty having been well rewarded. He was
born September 18, 1849, at Dover, Stewart
county, Tennessee, about seventy miles north
of Nashville. A wide-awake, ambitious
boy, he joined the Confederate army soon
after entering his teens, enlisting in Septem-
ber, 1862, in a company of cavalry com-
^Z^K'Uj
J
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI
749
manded by Colonel Woodward, who was
killed at the engagement in Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, his successor having been Colonel
Lee Sipert, who served with his command
under General Lyon.
This young soldier saw service in Ken-
tucky, Tennessee. Alabama, ^Mississippi and
Georgia, at one time helping to capture one
of Sherman's supply trains, ilr. Hicks took
part in many skirmishes, and was at the
front in the battles at Nashville and Frank-
lin, at the latter place seeing some hard fight-
ing. During the retreat of Hood's Army
through Alabama, he kept at the rear, and
although the greater part of his brigade was
captured in Alabama he managed to escape,
an order having been given for each man to
look out for himself. ^Making his way as
rapidly as he could back to Tennessee, Mr.
Hicks went to his old hime, near the Ohio
river, where he remained for a few months,
living with a Colonel who had served under
General Porrest; he afterwards worked for
his father, and never surrendered or took
the oath of allegiance.
Coming to Missouri in the fall of 1870,
Mr. Hicks located in Kennett on the tenth
day of December, and has since been a resi-
dent of this city. He worked at first on a
farm, or in the timber regions, and for eight
winters followed trapping and hiinting,
catching beaver, otter and other fur-bearing
animals, finding both pleasure and profit in
the work, each season filling a contract with
a dealer in furs. Mr. Hicks also ran a dray
in Kennett for a time, and took some con-
tracts for levee making along the Saint
Francois river, building tour miles of it and
doing some other work along the same line.
For the past five years ]\Ir. Hicks has been
successfully engaged in biisiness for himself,
as a dealer in coal and wood having a large
and lucrative trade. He has accumulated
a fair share of this world's goods, and owns
an entire block in Rose Park, where he has
a neat and attractive home.
:\rr. Hicks married, June 17, 1883, Drusilla
Seeley. who was born in Tennessee, but was
brought up in Clay county, Arkansas. Two
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Hicks, but both died in infancy. They, how-
ever, reared an orphan child from the age of
two years until fourteen years old. Mr. and
IMrs. Hicks are both trustworthy members
of the Baptist church, and he is a Democrat
in political affiliations.
Frank Alexander Johnston, first mayor,
of Crystal City after the incorporating act of
June 3, 1911, is a thoroughly educated,
trained and worthy representative of its busi-
ness and public interests. He was born in
Pennsylvania October 25, 1874, and is a son
of Joseph and ilartha (Flemming) Johnston.
The father was also a native of the Key-
stone state, born in 1848, and served in the
Civil war as a mere youth. Thus trained and
matured, even beyond his years, at the con-
clusion of the awful conflict he settled in
Venango county and engaged in the oil busi-
ness ; in 1866 he evidently longed for a more
peaceful and secure occupation, for in that
year he located on a farm in that section of
the state, where he lived and labored until
his death, at the age of sixty-three.
Frank Alexander Johnston was the fourth
child in a family of five, and received his
early education in the country and high
schools of Homer City, Pennsylvania. After
finishing his advanced courses, he taught
school for five years, and then established
himself as a merchant at Irwin, that state,
continuing his mercantile career at Ford
City. In 1902 Mr. Johnston became a citi-
zen of ^Missouri, becoming one of the founders
of Valley Park and its first merchant. He
remained in that town until his coming to
Crystal City in 1907. Mr. Johnston and his
brothers had established a flourishing general
store at Valley Park, St. Louis county; in
fact, the business was such as to warrant the
opening of another store at Crystal City, and
it was for that purpose that Frank A. be-
came a citizen of the place. That he found a
substantial welcome is evident both from the
growth of the Crystal City enterprise and
that when the place was ready to assume the
municipal garb his name was almost unani-
mously presented to the Judge of the County
Court for appointment to the mayoralty. In
his religious belief he is a Presbyterian and
attends the lodge meetings of the Modern
Woodmen of America.
In 1900 Mv. Johnston married Miss EUen
Naysmith. of Ford City, Pennsylvania, and
their home is a center of hearty and cultured
hospitality.
William H. Hatcher, M. D. For a num-
ber of years Dr. William H. Hatcher has
been connected with the upbuilding of Perry-
ville and he has just reason to be proud of the
fact that to his efforts can be traced many a
750
lilSTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
substantial enterprise or advancement con-
tributing greatly to the growth and prosper-
ity of this section of the state. In every sense
of the word he is a representative citizen and
a phj-sician and surgeon of unusual ability.
It is to the inherent force of character, the
commendable ambition and the unremitting
diligence of Dr. Hatcher himself that he has
progressed in the professional world until he
now occupies a leading place in the medical
fraternity of ]Missouri.
A native of Cape Girardeau county, Dr.
William H. Hatcher was born at Pocahontas,
on the 2nd of September, 1863, and he is a
son of James D. and Amanda K. (Wilson)
Hatcher, the former of whom was born in the
eastern part of Cape Girardeau county and
the latter of whom claimed Cape Girardeau
county as the place of her nativity. The
father of James D. Hatcher was of German
extraction and his wife traced her ancestry
back to stanch Irish stock. Reared to ma-
turity in Cape Girardeau county, James D.
Hatcher early engaged in agricultural pur-
isuits and for a number of years he lived on
a farm in Illinois, later returning to his na-
tive place where he purchased the old Wilson
homestead. He was summoned to the life
eternal in the year 1908 and his cher-
ished and devoted wife passed to the great
beyond in 1905. Mr. and Mrs. James D.
Hatcher became the parents of ten children,
of whom the Doctor was the second in order
of birth and of whom six are living at the
present time, in 1911.
Dr. William H. Hatcher obtained his pre-
liminary educational training in the public
schools of his native county and for a time
he attended the State Normal School and the
Oak Ridge high school. In 1889 he began
to study medicine at Nashville, Tennessee,
where he remained for a period of two years,
at the expiration of which he went to St.
Louis, where he was matriculated as a student
in the University of Missouri, then the
Marion Sims Medical College, in which ex-
cellent institution he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1892, duly receiving
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Dr.
Hatcher worked his way through college,
making the money with which to defray his
expenses by making "hoop-poles" for flour
barrels. Immediately after graduation he
settled in Perry county, at Brazeau, where he
was identified with the work of his profes-
sion for a period of nine years and where he
gained distinctive prestige as a physician and
surgeon of unusual skill and ability. In 1901
he established his home and professional
headquarters at Perryville, where he has re-
resided during the intervening j^ears to the
present time and here he enjoys the unal-
loyed confidence and esteem of all with whom
he has come in contact. After his arrival in
Perryville Dr. Hatcher espoused the reform
movement in politics and he has figured
prominently in the development of the city
and locality. In 1907 he erected the Perry
Hotel, which has been under several differ-
ent managements but which was again taken
charge of by Dr. Hatcher on the 1st of June,
1910. Under his able conduct this hotel has
gained a reputation as one of the finest hos-
telries in southeastern ]\Iissoviri. Dr.
Hatcher is on the committee and is one of the
boosters for electric lights and water works
in the town, where he is well known as an en-
terprising and progressive citizen whose deep
and sincere interest in community affairs has
ever been of the most insistent order.
At Brazeau, Missouri, on the 17th of June,
1894, Avas solemnized the marriage of Dr.
Hatcher to Miss Pinkie May Pross, whose
birth occurred at Newton county, Missouri,
and who is a daughter of Henry Pross, long
a representative citizen of Newton county,
Missouri, where he was engaged in the agri-
cultural business. Mr. and Mrs. Hatcher
have four sons, whose names are here en-
tered in respective order of birth, — Melvin
Pross, William Ray, Rollie Vernan, and
Nolan Sanford, all of whom are attending
school at Perryville. In his political convic-
tions Dr. Hatcher is aligned as a stalwart in
the ranks of the Democratic party and the
peculiar thing about this is that his father
was an uncompromising Republican, as are
all his brothers. In fraternal circles the
Doctor is a valued member of the Modern
Woodmen of America, and the United Broth-
erhood of America, in addition to which he
is also affiliated with a number of professional
organizations. The professional career of
Dr. Hatcher excites the admiration and has
won the respect of his contemporaries, and in
a calling in which one has to gain reputation
by merit he has advanced steadily until he is
acknowledged as the superior of most of the
members of the medical fraternity in this
part of the state, where he has so long main-
tained his home and where the list of his per-
sonal friends is coincident Avith that of his
acquaintances.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
John Johnson is well known in Lutesville
as the superintendent of the factories of the
Pioneer Cooperage Company, one of the larg-
est and most progressive cooperage concerns
in southeastern Missouri. Before a man can
hope to become a siiperintendent of any
branch of industry he must give evidence of
possessing certain requisites ; he must himself
be perfectly cognizant of the details of that
particular line of work, and he must also
show that he has the ability to control men.
ilr. Johnson has been connected in some wise
with lumber and timber all of his life, is a
perfect master of the workings of the cooper-
age business, and he is possessed of that exec-
utive ability and tact which are necessary to
command the best possible service.
Born in Ashland, Ohio, i\Iarch 10, 1846,
]\Ir. Johnson is a son of Jacob and Zilpha
Johnson, both natives of Ohio; the father is
of Irish descent, while the ancestors of the
mother were a nuxture of English and Penn-
sylvania Dutch. Jacob Johnson was a farm-
er in his native state, where he passed his
entire life, was there educated and married,
and there his demise occurred in the year
1895, while his wife was summoned to her
last rest in the year 1883. They were the
parents of eight children, of' which number
their son John was the tii'st in order of birth.
When John Johnson was but a lad of fif-
teen the Civil war broke out, and he was
seized with a desire to participate in the
conflict. He was, however, too young to be
permitted to enlist at that time, and was
obliged to restrain his ardor with such pa-
tience as he could call to his aid. He con-
tinued his studies in the schools of his neigh-
borhood, and waited until such time as he
might be old enough to join the army. When
he was seventeen years old his father
gave his consent to the .voung man's wishes,
and on the 7th day of October, 1863, he en-
listed in the Forty-first Ohio Volunteer In-
fantry under General W. B. Hazen. He soon
was in the midst of the conflict, saw service
through Tennessee. Alabama and Texas, was
in the battles around Atlanta, Franklin and
Nashville : was in the Hood campaign under
General Thomas, and was in some of the most
severely contested campaigns of the war. He
was slightly wounded in the left leg at the
battle of Nashville, but nevertheless con-
tinued with his company until the latter part
of November, 1865, when he received his
honorable discharge at New Orleans, Louisi-
ana. After Lee's surrender, the regiment of
which Mr. Johnson had been a member was
sent to Texas with the Fourth Corps, to be
ready for duty in Mexico, to guard against
the expected French occupation. On Mr.
Johnson's return to the life of a civilian he
went back to his native place, and remained
on the farm with his mother until 1871. He
then went to Saginaw City, Avhere he en-
gaged in the saw mill business, since which
time he has been constantly occupied in the
lumber manufacturing industry. He spent a
year in northern Michigan ; then returned
home to Ohio for a short time, and in 1892
went to Carlyle, Illinois, where he was con-
nected with the cooperage business. Locat-
ing in Cape Girardeau in 1896, he was en-
gaged in the sawmill business again; in 1904
he took charge of a large mill at Brownwood
and was one of the number who bought out
the Pioneer Cooperage Company. Disposing
of his interests, however, he entered the em-
ploy of the Pioneer Cooperage Company, lo-
cated at Fredericktown and in January, 1910,
he assumed the charge of the four mills situ-
ated respectively at Lutesville and Grassy,
Bollinger county, and at Camp No. 33 and
Coldwater, Wayne county. Under his effi-
cient control the work turned out by these
mills has increased in ciuantitj' and im-
proved in quality.
In 1871, the year that Mr. Johnson left
the farm and started in the sawmill business,
he was married to Jliss Susan Morris, of
Paulding county, Ohio, where her father,
George W. Morris, was an honored resident.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became the parents of
seven children, five of whom are living, —
Anna, whose birth occurred in 1874 and who
became the wife of K. C. Pierce, of Lutes-
ville, where she maintains her residence;
Leora S., married to the Rev. P. J. Rinehart,
a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church
at Effingham, Ohio; Bessie, Mrs. Fred C.
Shetley, who maintains her home at Spring-
field, Texas; Ella Lee and Belle M., both
teachers in the public school.
Mr. and ilrs. Johnson are both members
of the Methodist Episcopal church. South,
and in fraternal connection Mr. Johnson is
atYiliated with the JIasonic order, his direct
membership being with the Blue Lodge, No.
502, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at
Paulding, Ohio. He owns property in Texas,
having a tract of one hundred and forty-
three acres on the south Gulf coast.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Thomas A. Son, il. D. As an able and
successful examplar of the benignant Eclectic
school of medicine Dr. Son, who is engaged
in active general practice at Bonne Terre,
St. Francois county, has gained prestige as
one of the representative physicians and sur-
geons of this section of the state and holds
to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem
of the community in which he is laboring with
all of zeal and ability in his noble and exact-
ing profession. He is a native son of Missouri
and a scion of staunch old southern stock, as
the original representatives of the name in
Missouri came to this state from Kentuclrv'.
Dr. Thomas Alvin Son was born on a farm
in IMorgan count^^ ^Missouri, on the 2d of
January, 1857. and is a son of James M. and
Eliza Jane (Harris) Son, the former of whom
was born near the city of Sedalia, this state,
in 1832, and the latter of whom was born in
Cooper county. James IMonroe Son was
twenty-one years of age at the time of his
marriage and his entire active career
has been one of close and successful
identification with the great basic in-
dustry of agriculture. He and his wife,
both now venerable in years, reside at Ard-
more. Oklahoma, and it is worthj- of special
note that of their twelve children only one
is deceased. Dr. Thomas A., of this review,
is the third in order of birth. The lineage of
the Son Family is traced back to staunch Ger-
man origin and that of the Harris family is
of Scotch-Irish extraction. The father of
James ]\I. Son was one of the pioneer clergy-
men of the Baptist church in ^Missouri, where
he continued to reside until his death, in
1865. Wlien the Civil was was precipitated
James M. Son showed his fervent loyalty to
the Union by enlisting in its defense, in re-
sponse to President Lincoln's first call for
volunteers. Early in 1861 he thus became
a member of a company commanded by Cap-
tain Hart, and he was with his regiment in
active service at Jefferson City during the
memorable raid of General Price through this
state. He is a member of the Grand Army
of the Republic, is a staunch Democrat in
his political proclivities and both lie and bis
wife are earnest and zealous members of the
Baptist church. Their lives have been marked
by faithfulness and sincerity and they have
not been denied the .iust reward of popular
confidence and regard, the while the gracioiis
evening of their lives is brightened by the
filial affection of their children and their chil-
dren's children.
Dr. Thomas A. Son gained his early ex-
periences in connection with the scenes and
labors of the home farm and in the mean-
while his ambition was quickened through
tlie discipline secured in the local schools, as
is shown b.v the fact that after completing
the curriculum of the same he took a course
in a business college in the city of Sedalia.
His close application and ready powers of
assimilation made him eligible for pedagogic
honors when he was but seventeen years of
age, and for ten years he devoted his atten-
tion to successful teaching in the schools of
Morgan, Miller and Moniteau counties. This
service was, however, but a means to an end,
and his next experience was gained along
radically different lines, as he engaged in the
general merchandise business in the little vil-
lage of Passaic, Bates countj', where he also
served as postmaster for a period of four
vears. In the meanwhile he had formulated
definite plans for a career of wider usefulness,
and in preparation for the work of his chosen
profession he entered the American ]\Iedical
College in the city of St. Louis, where he com-
pleted the prescribed course and where he was
was graduated as a member of the class
of 1899, with the degree of Doctor of
^Medicine. He made a specially admirable
record as an undergraduate and came forth
from this institution well equipped for the
work of his profession, in which his initial ex-
perience was gained in the city of St. Louis,
where he remained until 1899, when he es-
tablished his residence at Bonne Terre, St.
Francois county, where he has built up a
large and representative general practice and
gained the high regard of the community.
He is medical examiner for several fraternal
insurance orders, is an active member of the
Missouri Eclectic Medical Society, and in a
competitive examination he won a prize
through his excellent standing in American
Order of Medical Examiners. Though never
a seeker of political preferment. Dr. Son is
unwavering in his allegiance to the Demo-
cratic party and as a citizen he is essentially
liberal and public-spirited. He is affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of
Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of
America, and botli he and his wife hold
membership in the Baptist church.
On the 10th of Febniary. 1882, was solem-
ized the marriage of Dr. Son to Miss Ida L.
Carney, of Enon, IMoniteau county, this state.
She is a daughter of Charles B. Carney, one
of the representative agriculturists and sterl-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
753
ling- citizens of that county. Dr. and Mrs.
Sou have au interesting family of nine chil-
dren, of whom eight remain at the parental
home, their names, in respective order of
birth, being here entered: Alviu Darwin,
John Ezra, Estella Blanche, James Benton,
Goldie, Maude, Leota, Roweua and Emma.
The attractive family home is known for its
cordial hospitality and good cheer and is a
favorite rendezrvous for a wide circle of
friends.
Thomas G. Wilson, a prosperous farmer
citizen at Senath in Dunklin county, is one
of the men who have more than kept pace in
their own prosperity with the remarkable
progress of recent years in Southeast Missouri
generally. Probably few men in this part
of the state have more to show for their
energy and business enterprise. A dozen
years ago he was a poor tenant farmer ; since
then he has become the owner of several
farms making in the aggregate one of the
best country estates in his county, owns prop-
erty in town, is a stockholder in the local
bank, and one of the most prosperous citizens
of his community.
]Mr. "Wilson was born in Henderson county,
Tennessee, September 25, 1866, and lived
there the first ten years of his life, during
which time he acquired practically all the
schooling he ever had. In 1877 his parents,
Nathan C. and Clarissa (Derryberry) Wil-
son, settled two miles northwest of Senath on
rented land. The father died in the same
year, and the mother then moved to Buffalo
Island and bought forty acres at a dollar and
a quarter an acre, all of it uncleared except
four acres. Her other sons moved away, and
Thomas was left alone to work the land and
provide for himself and mother. He was not
lacking in the faithfulness to duty and energy
and determination which accomplish great
works, and his later prosperitj^ seems a grate-
ful reward for his early toils and hardships.
He set to work, cleared off the little farm,
set out an orchard, and continued to live
there until 1901.
In that year he made the move which
started him to prosperity. He moved to the
T. J. Bolin farm of eighty acres two and a
half miles west of Senath. He bought the
place on credit, having only his own character
and energy as capital. His mother had lived
■with him all these years and also moved with
him to the present home, where she died in
September, 1902. From liis new beginning
at this location he has prospered. In 1903 he
added another eighty acres adjoining his tirst
place, in 1909 bought the Irv Scott eighty
lying just west of the corporation of Senath,
and has also acquired thirty-nine acres ad-
joining his origina.1 place on the east. In ten
years he has thus succeeded in possessing two
hundred and seventy-nine acres, and also
owns a couple of lots in town. All of his land
is cleared but twelve acres, and he has im-
proved it with good house and barn, and is
in every way a modern, progressive farmer,
lie owns stock and is one of the directors of
the Citizens Bank of Senath.
]\Ir. Wilson is one of the active citizens of
this community. He is a school director and
served as school clerk for nine years. In
politics he is Republican. He is one of the
working members of the Christian church.
Fraternally he is a member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen
of the World at Senath.
In 1894 he married iliss Artie M. Smith-
wick, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth
Smithwick, well known residents of Dunklin
county, who came here from Tennessee. Six
children were born to them, three of whom
died in infancy, and the three living are:
Helen, born in 1901 ; Hubert G., born in
1903 ; and Veder H., born in 1906.
George W. Albright. Madison county,
Missouri, includes among her representative
citizens George W. Albright, at present
county collector, a native son who has ever
proved very loyal to her institutions and her
interests and who can ever be counted upon
to support such measures as in his opinion
will prove of general benefit. Mr. Albright
has held his present office since March 1,
1911, and has already proved most faithful
and capable.
George W. Albright was born on April 5,
1861, the son of Benjamin and Rachel
(AAHiitener) Albright, both of whom are de-
ceased, and of whom more extended mention
will be made in ensuing paragraphs. Both
belonged to families originally founded in
North Carolina and among the first to locate
in southeastern ^Missouri. George W. was
the tenth in order of birth in a family of
fourteen children, four of whom survive at
the present day. namely: Elijah P., of Fred-
ericktown : F. M.. residing in the soiitheast-
ern part of iladison county, where he is an
754
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IHSSOURI
extensive farmer and stockman; iliss Hattie,
who makes her home with the foregoing; and
George W.
Mr. Albright was reared in Madison county
and for a number of years was enrolled among
the successful agriculturists, only upon his
assumption of his present olfice, in fact, be-
coming less active in the great basic indus-
try. Politically he is one of the most loyal
and imswerving of Democrats, giving hand
and heart to the cause of the party. He has
fraternal affiliation with the Modern Wood-
men of America and the ilodern Brother-
hood of America and he is a consistent mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. South.
He has maintained his home in Frederick-
town for the past three years and is helpfully
interested in the many-sided life of the com-
munity.
Mr. Albright's wife, previous to her mar-
riage, was Leannah C. Tinnin, daughter of
Jason Tinnin, representative of an old Bol-
linger county family. To their union have
been born seven children, four of whom are
living, namely: Hugh D., Oscoe, Lola and
Edgar. Roscoe, twin of Oscoe, Lillie and
Jessie are deceased.
Benjamin Albright, father of the subject,
was born in Georgia and was but two years
of age when his parents, Christopher Al-
bright and wife, removed to Bollinger county,
Missouri, where Benjamin resided until after
his marriage, upon which occasion he removed
to ^ladison county. Three of Benjamin Al-
bright's sistei*s survive, they being Mrs. Eliza
Bennett, of Oklahoma ; Mrs. Henrietta Mc-
Daniel, of St. Louis; and one other also re-
siding in St. Louis. Benjamin was an agri-
culturist and was well and favorably known
in this county, in which his interests were
centered.
The mother, Rachel Whitener Albright,
was born in this county, the daughter of
Henrv' AVhitener, an early farmer-settler. As
before mentioned, but four of the children
who came into the home of these worthy peo-
ple are now living. Elijah P., born in Octo-
ber, 1851, resides in Fredericktown. He was
for years engaged in farming, but for the
past five years he has devoted his attention
for the most part to teaming. He married
Miss Rosie Bess, daughter of Edward Bess,
and they have one son, William G., a farmer
in Arkansas. Francis j\I. is an extensive
farmer in tlie southeastern part of iladison
county, and I\liss Ilattie resides witli him up-
on his farm.
James H.^rvey English, M. D. In no pro-
fession is there more constant progress than
in that of medicine and surgery, thousands
of the finest minds the world has produced
making it their one aim and ambition to dis-
cover more effectual methods for the allevia-
tion of suffering, some more potent weapon
for the conflict with disease, some clever
device for repairing the damaged human
organism. Ever and anon the world hears
with mingled wonder and thanksgiving of
a new conquest of disease and disaster which
a few years ago would have been placed
within the field of the impossible. To keep
in touch with these discoveries means con-
stant alertness, and while there may be in
some quarters a great indolence in keeping
pace with modern thought, the highest type
of physician believes it no less than a crime
not to be master of the latest devices of
science. An up-to-date practioner is Dr.
James Harvey English, of Farmington, Saint
Francois countj^ Missouri. He was born in
Hardin county, Kentucky, December 25,
1865, and his father, Robert S. English, was
also a Kentuckian, the date of the elder
man's birth being November 25, 1825.
Mr. English, the father, received his edu-
cation of a preliminary character in the
common schools and spent his youth and
early manhood as a farmer. In the fall of
1881 he removed to the state of JMissouri and
engaged in farming in Mississippi county,
where he remained for two years, at the end
of that period removing to a farm north of
Farmington. In about 1850 Robert S. Eng-
lish was united in marriage to Mary E.
Eggen, of Hardin county, Kentucky, and to
this union five children were born, the sub-
ject being the fourth in order of birth. The
others were Dena. who became ilrs. R. N.
Davis and is now deceased; Silas English,
of Hardin county, Kentuclrs'; John M. Eng-
lish, a resident of Hardin county, Kentucky,
and Lizzie, now jMrs. I. W. Ware, of Fred-
ericktown, Missouri. The mother died June
10. 1898, and the father survived a number
of years, his demise occurring November 20,
190-i. The.v were faithful members of the
Presbyterian church, and the father Avas
Democratic in politics and a member of the
Masonic fraternity.
Dr. English, of this review, received his
education in the public schools of his section
of Kentucky, and w^as about sixteen years of
age when his parents removed to Farming-
ton. To go into detail his public school edu-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
cation consisted of two years in the Charles-
ton puhlic schools, one term in the public
schools of Farmington and two years in the
Baptist college of this place. After teaching
school for one year, he entered the Missouri
Medical College at St. Louis, and received
his well-earned degree from tiiat institution
in the year 1890. Shortly after finishing his
preparation he came to Farmington and he
has ever since been successfully engaged in
general practice. In 1907 he took three
months post-graduate work at Washington
University, at St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Eng-
lish has served two four year terms as
county coroner. He is Democratic in politics,
Presbyterian in church faith and belongs to
the Modern Woodmen of America and the
Royal Neighbors.
On the 24th day of December, 1891, Dr.
English laid the foundation of a happy
household and congenial life companionship
by his union to Miss Delia Gossett, of Far-
mington, daughter of John Gossett. Dr. and
]\Irs. English are the parents of one son,
Charles R., u progressive and promising
young man, who intends to follow in the
paternal footsteps in the matter of a pro-
fession. He is at the present time stenog-
rapher at the State hospital. Dr. English,
who is generall.v recognized as one of the
leading members of his profession in the
county, is a member of the County and State
Medical Societies.
Abeam Wendell Keith, M. D. Among the
deceased but well remembered representative
of the medical profession in Saint Francois
county is Dr. Abram Wendell Keith. Bonne
Terre was the scene of the professional labors
of this gentleman, who has also left behind
him a record for unselfish and public-spirited
citizenship. For forty years he devoted him-
self to relieving the ills and sufferings of
humanity, nor were his services of the coldly
professional t^-pe, for he bore with him into
the sick room the kindly presence of the in-
terested and sympathizing friend. And in
the constant growth and development which
characterized the age in his field as in all
others he kept pace with the general progress.
As his name indicates he was of Scotch descent
and in his character were incorporated those
stanch, true traits which make old Scotia's
sons, in the words of her own poet, "loved at
home, revered abroad."
Abram Wendell Keith was born in Saint
Francois county, the date of his nativity hav-
ing been February 4, 1835. As said before,
his forefathers were of "the land o' cakes."
and his father was a native of Knoxville,
Tennessee. He grew to manhood near Farm-
ington and began the study of medicine un-
der Dr. Goff. In 1865 he entered the Medical
College of St. Louis and was graduated in
1858. After practicing for some five years in
Saint Francois county he entered the St.
Louis iledical College and in 1864 was grad-
uated from that institution, which has pre-
pared so many men noted in the profession.
Thus thoroughly ready for the profession
which more than any other requires that a
man give up his entire life to it, he estab-
lished himself at French village, St. Francois
county and after five years he succeeded his
preceptor. Dr. Goff at Big River ilills, re-
maining there until 1880. He then went to
Bonne Terre, where he practiced until his
death in April, 1897.
On the fifth day of July, 1859, Dr. Keith
was united in marriage to Miss Margaret
Ann ilcFarland, of St. Francois county, ilis-
souri, daughter of Reuben H. and Martha
Benton McFarland, and this ideal union was
further cemented by the birth of six chil-
dren. Dr. Frank L. Keith, mentioned on suc-
ceeding pages of this work devoted to repre-
sentative citizens of Southeastern ilissouri,
was the eldest in order of birth. The others
are : Bettie C, Wendell Linn, Martha Ellen,
Marvin L. and Finis W.
Dr. Keith was a devoted Methodist and
was one of the foundere of the church of such
denomination in this locality. He was gath-
ered to his fathers April 22, 1897, but his
cherished and devoted wife survives and
makes her residence at Bonne Terre.
Frank Lee Keith, M. D. One of the best
known and highly honored physicians and
surgeons of Southeastern Missouri is Frank
Lee Keith, M. D., who in addition to his gen-
eral practice is surgeon for the Doe Run
Lead Company. He is the scion of one of the
oldest and most distingiiished families of Mis-
souri and the history of his forbears includes
some of the most gallant pages of our na-
tional and colonial history. Dr. Keith is a
native of St. Francois county, his birth hav-
ing occurred IMay 26, 1860. In his choice of
profession he is emulating his honored father.
Dr. Abram Wendell Keith, who was a well-
known physician. The maiden name of the
mother was Margaret McFarland, and more
■56
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nSSOURI
complete biographical record of his parents
is given in preceding pages.
This locality is dear to Dr. Frank Lee
Keith by many years' association. His early
education was secured in the public schools
and in Arcadia College at Arcadia, ^lissouri,
which at that time was under the manage-
ment of the Methodist Episcopal church. In
the meantime, having come to the conclusion
to adopt the profession of which he is now
such an ornament, at the age of nineteen
years, he entered the St. Louis Medical Col-
lege and was graduated from that institution
in 1881, with the well-earned degree of M. D.
He began practice at Bonne Terre and after
two years satisfied an ambition for additional
training by going to New York and taking
post-graduate work in the Bellevue Hospital
Medical College and after finishing there he
remained in the east for a year, practicing in
the city of Brooklyn. He then returned to
Saint Francois county and resumed his prac-
tice and is at the present time located at Flat
River. He was superintendent of State Hos-
pital No. 4 at Farmington for two and one
half years, beginning with the year 1903, and
he gave to that institution a most able admin-
istration. At the present time he is surgeon
of the Doe Run Lead Company. He is asso-
ciated with all those organizations calculated
to advance the interests of the profession,
such as the County, State and American
Medical Associations and he is a constant
student of all that pertains to the advance-
ment of the great science with which he is
identified. He cares for a large practice and
is known over a wide expanse of territory.
Dr. Keith laid the foundation of a happy
household and congenial life companionship
when on June 20, 1883, he was united in mar-
riage, in Brooklyn, New York, to Miss Mary
Frances De Lisser, of that city. Mrs. Keith is
descended from an old Knickerbocker family
and the daughter of Richard L. DeLisser, a
native of Jamaica and a manufacturing
chemist. To their union have been born the
following seven children: Marion. Gertrude.
Frank DeLisser. deceased; Wendell DePeys-
ter, deceased; Mildred Fisher; Marguerite
Williams; Glenwood Linn; and Dorothy
Carolyn. Dr. Keith is a Mason, exemplify-
ing in himself the principles of moral and
social justice and brotherly love, for which
the order stands; he is Presbyterian in
church faith and his political conviction is
in harmony with the tenets of the Democratic
part.v.
Dr. Keith 's paternal grandmother was a de-
scendant of Andrew Baker, who located in
this part of the state in 1796, on a Spanish
grant. He was a brother of that Jacob Baker
who was one of the staff of General George
Washington. The Doctor's maternal grand-
mother was a niece of Senator Thomas H.
Benton, who was United States Senator from
ri for about thirty-two years.
Robert J. Bagby. The passing stranger,
as he travels through Franklin county, Mis-
souri, will see many beautiful farms, with
well-kept buildings, fine horses and cattle
and much attractive scenery, but as he nears
New Haven he will exclaim with pleasure at
the beauties of nature as exhibited on the
five hundred acres of growing verdure com-
prising the New Haven Nurseries. These
nurseries are one of the leading horticultu-
ral enterprises of the Mississippi valley, and
one of the oldest M'est of the river. The in-
cipient efforts which resulted in this exten-
sive nursery business came from Julian
Bagby, father of the subject of this review.
It was in 1868 that he planted the first seed
some twelve miles south of the city of New
Haven, and thus laid the foundation of this
far-famed nursery. Only a few acres were
comprised in his holdings there, and it was
merely a patch in contrast with the full-
grown enterprise of the present day. In
1871 Mr. Bagby changed his location to the
lofty hills overlooking the Missouri river
and renewed his horticultural efforts, but it
was not until 1880 that he decided to branch
out more extensively and exploit his prod-
ucts with the aid of road salesmen. For a
period of ten years this method of advertis-
ing the nursery was conducted, and the vol-
ume of business so taxed the capacity of the
plant as to warrant the management in mak-
ing it a wholesale and retail institution, and
as such it is now conducted.
The New Haven Nurseries comprise five
hundred acres, with an ideal equipment for
caring for stock and splendid homes for its
proprietors. Of this extensive tract two
hundred acres are planted in trees, compris-
ing chiefly peach trees, and from seven hun-
dred thousand to nine hundred thousand
young trees are budded annually, fifty per
cent of them being of the Elberta variety.
A branch nurserv of one hundred and sixty
acres is located at Altamont. Kansas. The
entire business is conducted through the
borne office, however, and under the efficient
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AHSSOURI
r57
supervision of Robert J. Bagby. In 1S92 the
plant was incorporated under the laws of the
state for thirty thousand dollars, with Julian
Bagb}' as president, John L. Bagby as secre-
tary, and Robert J. Bagby as treasurer and
general manager. The history of the Bagby
family, therefore, is largely a history of the
New Haven nurseries, the extraordinary suc-
cess of the latter being mute evidence of the
business capabilities of the former.
Julian Bagby, the father of our subject,
was born November 28, 1834, in Cumberland
county, Virginia, the son of Madison H. and
Martha J. (Hudgens) Bagby. In 1854, Mr.
Bagby came to Missouri and, being a well-
educated and highly intelligent man, he en-
gaged in teaching school for a number of
years. As stated in the beginning of this
sketch, he turned the fii-st ground for the
New Haven Nurseries in 1868, in the mean-
time continuing his pedagogic labors until
the trees and plants should be of sufficient
size and hardiness to afford him a livelihood.
But the Civ-il war broke out, and Mr. Bagby,
a loyal southern sympathizer, was en route to
the Confederate army to offer his services
for the cause he considered right when he
was captured by the Federal troops, held
prisoner for some time, and finally paroled.
On the 24th of June, 1857, Julian Bagby
was united in marriage to Mary E. Bridges,
the daughter of Andrew W. and Elizabeth
(Leech) Bridges, the former of whom was
a hardy Scotchman, born in 1789, who set-
tled in JMissouri in 1839. He had purchased
some land in the hilly country of Missouri,
and worried along, eking out a scant living
from his tobacco fields, the while the rich bot-
tom lands lay wild and untamed. This fail-
ure to discern the most fruitful land was one
of the drawbacks with which the pioneer set-
tler had to contend, as he had no government
reports, agricultural colleges, or others' ex-
perience by which to profit. Mr. Bridges
fin-nished tobacco to the boat traffic of the
"Big ]Muddy," and lived to a comfortable
old age.
By the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Julian
Bagby seven children were born, as follows:
Dr. Oliver, one of the prominent men of Yin-
ita, Oklahoma; Robert J., of this review;
Mrs. ifartha Patton. of New Haven ; John L.
and James Edward, twins, the latter of
whom died at the age of nineteen years ; "Wil-
liam, a dentist of Washington, this county;
and Dr. Louis, a practicing physician of Vin-
ita. Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Bagby have
traveled life's path together for over fifty-
five years, and are both comparatively well,
though the strenuous life would break the
physical vigor of people of less hardy stock.
Robert J. Bagby, the worthy son of a wor-
thy father, was born in Franklin county,
Missouri, August 28, 1861, and his early life
did not differ much from that of other boys
of an agricultu)-al commimity. He attended
the rural schools of Franklin county, but
with a desire for more knowledge supple-
mented this schooling by a course in the high
school at St. Louis, and he engaged in teach-
ing, as did his father before him. However,
the confinement of the school-room was not
to his liking and he taught but a few months
when he decided that he, too, would farm.
Accordingly he followed farming on a small
scale for a short time, when he associated
himself in business with his father, it being
his belief that the enterprise so well be-
gun by his father could be increased and
broadened into a profitable business, and how
well he prophesied is proven to-day. At the
same time John L. Bagby entereci the con-
cern, and it was the stimulus given to the
business by this young blood that has caused
the exceeding growth and prosperity of the
New Haven Nurseries, of which more ex-
tended details were given in the beginning
of this sketch. Robert J. Baghy is also one
of the promoters of the Farmers' Savings
Bank of New Haven, being president of that
institution.
In politics Mr. Bagby gives his vote and al-
legiance to the Democratic party, but he has
never desired any of the official positions of
the party. He is a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a
"Woodman. He and his wife are devout mem-
bers of the Missionary Baptist church, Mr.
Bagby being a member of the official board.
On May 30, 1889, Robert J. Bagby joined
the rank of the Benedicts when he was united
in marriage to Lillian Armstrong, who was
born December 26, 1870, a daughter of Ed-
win and Martha (Walton") Armstrong. Ed-
win Armstrong was a native Missourian. his
father being a pioneer settler in that state,
whence he migrated from Kentucky. Mrs.
Armstrong was a member also of an old Mis-
souri family, and her father lived to the ex-
treme old age of ninety-six years.
Mr. and Mrs. Bagby are the parents of a
family of sons and daughters of whom they
are justly proud. They are ten in number,
and are as follows: Carroll, who graduated
rss
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
from the United States Military Academy at
West Point in 1911, is a second lieutenant in
the ai-my, being the second youngest man
bearing a commission; Oliver W. is a mid-
shipman in the United States navy and a
member of the class of 1912,- his boat now
cruising in European waters; Ralph is in the
AVilliam Jewell College, class of 1914; Lew
W. is a freshman in the same college ; and
Robert E., Mary, Helen, Walter J., Lillian
and John complete the interesting family.
Much of the success of the New Haven
Nurseries is due to the untiring efforts of
John L. Bagby, a younger brother of Rob-
ert J., of this review, and the secretary of
the concern. He was boi-n in Franklin
county, Missouri, on the 15th day of October,
186S. His education, like that of his brother,
was received in the common schools of his
native countj-, and when he was still a young
man he entered the nursery business in con-
nection with his father and brother. His his-
tory is practically reviewed in the preceding
paragraphs. Suffice it to say that he is in
every way a good example of the enterpris-
ing, energetic and progressive business man.
John L. Bagby was married at New Haven,
this state, on August 10, 1892, the lady of his
choice being Alice Schleef, who was born
May 20, 1872, a daughter of Samuel and Lou
A. (Pihle) Schleef, the former an early set-
tler in Missouri from the Fatherland and un-
til his death a prominent New Haven mer-
chant. To jMr. and I\Irs. John L. Bagby have
been born two children, Harold and Ray-
mond, both in school.
This brief review of the Bagby family is a
striking illustration of the old axiom, "Op-
portunity knocks once at every door," — yes,
but one must be ready to meet it more than
half way, and must know the proper method
of treatment when it "comes a 'knocking."
Martin Bird Minter. Among the most
prominent, progressive and generally praise-
worthy of the citizens of Lodge, Bollinger
county, is jMartin Bird Lliuter, who answers
to the dual calling of merchant and farmer,
and among whose many claims to honor is
that of being a veteran of the Civil war, for
he served as a soldier in the Union army
during the latter part of the great conflict
between the states. Mr. Minter has conducted
a general store in Lodge since the year 1907,
and has a large and satisfied patronage. He
has a small farm at present in this county.
but in years past he has been more exten-
sively eugiiged in the great basic industry.
Martin Bird Minter, is a native Keutuek-
ian, his birth having occurred in Marshall
county of the Blue Grass state on the Ibth
da.v of January, 18,16. He is a son of Joseph
and Mary (Griffith) Minter, natives of Ten-
nessee and Virginia, respectively. The sub-
ject was reared upon a farm, his father be-
ing of that calling, and his preparation was
of that practical sort which comes from ac-
tual experience. As was the ease with the
young men of his day and generation, his
youthful years were disturbed by the events
preceding the Civil war and at the age of
eighteen years he enlisted in the LTnion army,
as a member of Company L, of the Twelfth
Kentucky- Cavalry, under the command of
Colonel Crittenden and General Stoueman.
The date of his enlistment was January, 1861,
and he was in time to see some of the most
active fighting of the war. His service was
for the most part in Tennessee, North Caro-
lina and Virginia. He participated in the
battles at Paducah, Kentuel^v-. and Bristol,
Virginia, not to menton numerous other en-
gagements. He received honorable discharge
in August, 1865, and returned to the pursuits
of peace.
For a number of years Mr. Minter resided
in the Big Bend state, where he ensfasred in
farming in Marshall county. In 1880, hav-
ing become favorably impressed with the ad-
vantages of Bollinger county, Missouri, he
severed his former a.ssoeiations and removed
to this locality. At that time he bought one
hundred and thirty-five acres of wood laud,
which he proceeded to clear. In 1886 he sold
this at an advantage and bought one hun-
dred and twenty acres in the vicinity of
Lodge. After operating this for a time he
sold half, but still retains sixty acres, which
he farms.
j\Ir. ]\Iinter is also a siiccessful business
man and he built his store here in 1907. He
carries a stock of general merchandise, and
in the years in which he has been identified
with business interests here he has enjoyed
an excellent patronage.
Mr. Minter was married on the 9th of Sep-
tember. 1866, the lady to become his wife be-
ing Julia i\Iorgan. daughter of T. J. and Em-
eline ^Morgan, natives of North Carolina
and Tennessee. The union of the subject and
his wife was solemnized while he was living
in IMarshall countv. Kentucky-. The worthy
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
759
wife and mother was called to her eternal
rest in April, 1S93, leaving seven living chil-
dren, two others having died previously, and
five survive and are as follows: Mary Eme-
line, born in 1867, the wife of R. C. Alexan-
der; Jo Ellen, born in 1872, wife of A. J.
Bess; Hattie, born in 1877, wife of Dines
Bess; Blaine L., born in 1881, whose wife's
maiden name was Jennie Shell; and Henry
Clay, born in 1883, and still residng at home.
Mr. Minter married his present wife in De-
cember, 1895. She was Sarah A. Hahn, of
Bollinger count}'.
Mr. Minter has ever taken an interest in
public matters and has occasionally given ef-
ficient service in public office. He was ap-
pointed justice of the peace of Lorance
township, Bollinger county, and held the of-
fice for six years and for the past thirteen
years he has held the office of postmaster of
Lodge, being in fact the present incumbent
of that office. He is a Republican and stands
high in party councils. In his church faith he
is affiliated with the Missionary Baptist
church, of which his wife is also a member.
He and the members of his family play a
prominent part in the many-sided life of the
section.
Sam Btrxs is the eldest of nine chil-
dren. His father, Thomas Byrns. was born
in St. Louis county, where he grew up on a
farm and married Miss ]\Iargaret J. Bowles,
of the same county. Later he moved to Jef-
ferson eountv, where Sam Byrns was born
in the year 1848. on the 14th of JIareh. The
elder Byrns was a Mason, a member of the
Baptist church and a Democrat in politics.
He represented Jefferson coimty in the state
legislature in 1870 and was always regarded
as a leading citizen of the county.
Sam Byrns spent his early life on the farm,
as his father had done, but received the
greater educational advantages which the
later time has provided. After completing
the course in the common schools he attended
the Steelville Academy at Steelville, Mis-
souri, and also the St. James Academy in St.
James. At Washington University he en-
joyed the advantage of the wider training of
collegiate study. After leaving Washington
Univ'ersity he read law and was admitted to
the bar in 1872, and entered upon the prac-
tice of his profession in Jefferson county.
The Democratic party found him a valua-
ble member of their organization and liave
testified their appreciation of his ability tn
advance the principles of their party by con-
ferring various political honors upon him.
Mr. Byrns has served in both the senate and
tl.e lower house of the Missouri legislature
and m 1890 was returned for congress from
the Tenth district of Missouri. While in
Washington he was a member of the rivers
and harbors conunittee. Upon the comple-
tion of his term in congress he returned to
DeSoto, where he has since practiced law in
partnership with ilr. Bean.
ilr. Byrns has been twice married ; in 1872
to Miss Laura Honey and in 1884 to Miss
Slelissa Moss. No children were born of
either union. Mr. and Mrs. Byrns are mem-
bers of the Methodist church.
George A. Lacy, a well known farmer near
Kennett, after experiencing many set-backs
and discouragements has finally come to a
place where all is apparently smooth sailing.
Of all the qualities wheh are essential in or-
der to insure success there is none more im-
portant than the ability to stick to a thing,
surmounting all obstacles, disregarding all
unpleasantness, climbing up after falling
down, hopeful in face of failure, optimistic
in all. Such has been the attitude of Mr.
Lacy throughout his difficulties.
George A. Lacy was born on a farm in
Tennessee. September 2. 1868, and on that
tarm the first six years of his life were spent.
In 1874 he came to Dunklin coimtv with his
parents, who took up their residence near
Vincit, but before three years had elapsed
both father and mother had died, leaving the
boy nothing but a heritage of a strong con-
stitution, a determination to achieve, and a
cheery disposition, combined with other per-
sonal traits that have assisted him as boy and
man. Mr. 0. B. Harris took his young or-
phaned brother-in-law to his own home and
eared for him with an almost paternal inter-
est, giving him the advantage of a common
school education and also giving him prac-
tical education in asrricultural pursuits.
George Lacy was an inmate of ]\Ir. Harris'
home for thirteen years, at which time
George, a strii3ling of twenty years, obtained
work on the different farms in the neighbor-
hood and in 1894 began farming operations
of his own on a tract of rented land in the
neighborhood of Kennett. near the place
where he now maintains his residence. The
farm was in a vrild state and the enterprising
young man cleared one hundred and forty-
five acres and put it under cultivation. A
760
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
short time after he commenced his independ-
ent agricultural pursuits he experienced a
heavy loss, when his large barn was entirely
destroyed by hre; this was followed by a se-
ries of misfortunes which prevented his get-
ing ahead as fast as his ambitious nature
would have chosen. In 1905 he rented a farm
of one hundred and fortj'-live acres of land,
owned by J. J. Rogers, of Kennett, and there
he now Ives.
In 1894 Mr. Lacy married Ruth Herron,
whose birth occurred November 11, 1868,
near Caruth. Mrs. Lacy has lived her entire
life in Dunklin county, her parents, Thomas
and Rhoda Herroo, being old residents of
that part of Missouri. Of the three children
who were born to Mr. and ]Mrs. Lacy two are
living. Berley B. and Arthur T. Mrs. Lacy
shared all the early discouragements of her
husband, as the year which marked his first
farming venture was the one in which they
were married, starting their life together
with no capital but the pluck and determina-
tion of husband and wife alike.
Mr. Lacy is affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, his direct membership
being with the Caruth lodge. In politics he
is a Democrat, but his life has always been
too busy to permit of his devoting much time
to political matters.
Clyde Oakes. The people of Kennett who
only know Clyde Oakes as a lawyer and a
man of business would never imagine that
he spent some years of his life teaching. He
is so thoroughly well fitted to fill the posi-
tions he occupies now that it is hard to think
of him and pedagogy together. Yet, as a
matter of fact, he was a most successful
teacher. As a rule a successful teacher may
become a prominent professional man, but
rarely makes a success of business. Mr.
Oakes has from first to last been a success,
not that we wish to put him in the class
of the "has beens," on the contrary, he is
doing excellent work in Kennett to-day and
will doubtless continue in his activities.
Clyde Oakes was born in Lake county,
Tennessee, November 2, 1877, where he re-
ceived his education. In 1900 he came to
IMissoui'i and taught for three years in
Dunklin coiinty. He soon made his presence
felt and in 1903 he became deputy county
clerk, holding the office for four years under
P. C. Harrison. He studied law and was
admitted to the bar by Judge Fort. In 1909
he was made assistant cashier of the Cotton
Exchange Bank and after one year was pro-
moted to the position of cashier, in which
capacity he is now serving the bank.
In 1904 he married I\Iiss Terah Ward, a
native of Dunklin county, daughter of W.
J. Ward. Two children have been born to
the union, Gertrude and Berniece.
Mr. Oakes is a member of the City Council
and is secretary of the Commercial Club.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church. South, and in his church work as in
all else is putting all his energies. He is a man
who is well known in Kennett and during the
few years that he has been here he has made
himself ver3' prominent in the business mart
and in political circles, being Secretary of
the County Democratic Central Committee. A
later history will recount the events which
will yet occur in his life and the efforts that
he wiU hereafter put forth for the betterment
of his county and state.
Charles E. Cashion. Ideas backed with
indefatigable energy, — the desire and power
to accomplish big things, — these qualities
make of success not an accident but a logical
result. The man of initiative is he who com-
bines with a capacity for hard work an in-
domitable will. He recognizes no such thing
as failure and his final success is on a parity
with his well directed efforts. Charles Ed-
win Cashion is a self-made man in the most
significant sense of the word. As a youth he
learned the printer's trade and he has been
interested in the newspaper business during
the major portion of his active business
career, being at the present time one of the
owners of the Perry Count y Repithlicaii. a de-
cidedly progressive and well edited publica-
tion. In 1910 he was elected to the office of
county clerk of Perry county and he is dis-
charging the duties connected with that posi-
tion with all of honor and distinction.
Charles E. Cashion was bom in Perry
county, Missouri, on the 11th of November,
1871, a son of John B. Cashion, who was like-
wise born in this county and whose birth oc-
curred on the 1st of September, 1844. The
father was reared to maturity on the old
Cashion homestead, in the work and manage-
ment of which he early began to assist his
brothers. He was orphaned at a very early
age, his parents having been William and
Sally Cashion. On the maternal side he
traces his ancestry back to stanch Holland
stock, his mother having been a representa-
tive of an old Noi-th Carolina Dutch family.
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST :MISS0URI
761
With his four brothers, John B. Cashion grew
to maturity and at the time of the inception
of the Civil war all five boj's enlisted as sol-
diers in the Union arm3'. Although a mere
boy during the war period Mr. Cashion saw
a great deal of hard service and after the
close of that sanguinary conflict he returned
to Perry county, locating at Perryville, where
he engaged in the sewing-machine business,
to which line of enterprise he has continued
to devote more or less attention during the
long intervening years to the present time.
He has taken a prominent and public-spirited
part in local politics and has served with
efficiency as deputy sheriff, as township con-
stable and as .iustice of the peace. In 1866
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Emma
Block, who was reared and educated at Perry-
\alle and who is a daughter of Hyman Block.
This union has been prolific of four children
whose names are here entered in respective
order of birth. — Jessie, who is the wife of
T. W. Tackenberg: Charles E., who is the im-
mediate subject of this review; Corrine, who
is now ]\Irs. Henry CaiTuthers; and Linn,
who is engaged in the drug business at Ches-
ter, Illinois. Mr. and ]\Irs. John B. Cashion
are both living at a ripe old age and they
command the unalloyed confidence and esteem
of their many friends and acquaintances by
reason of their sterling integrity and genial
kindliness.
Charles E. Cashion, of this notice, was edu-
cated in the public schools of Perr3^ille and
at the age of fifteen years he left school and
learned the printing business. His first em-
ployment was with the Perry County Sun
and in the j-ear 1889 he launched into the
newspaper business on bis own responsibility
by establishing the Perry County Republi-
can. After running this paper for two years
he disposed of it to his cousin, Arthur V.
Cashion. and went to St. Louis, where he
worked at the printer's trade for a time. In
1898, however, he returned to Perryville,
where he again became interested in the Perry
Count]! Repnilican. being associated in the
editing: and publishing of that paper with his
cousin. In 1910 he made the race for and
was elected to the office of county clerk of
Perry county. His political proclivities are
in accordance with the principles of tlie Re-
publican party and he is an active factor in
the local councils of that organization. In
a fraternal way he is affiliated with the ]\Iod-
ern "Woodmen of America, the Modern Broth-
erhood of America, the Knights of Pythias,
the Sons of Veterans, and the Fraternal
Order of Eagles. His religious faith is in
harmony with the tenets of the Presbyterian
church.
On the 30th of December, 1901, Mr. Cash-
ion was united in marriage to Miss Dora
Garth, of Perryville. To this union have
been born two children, — Cosy Mildred,
whose natal day is the 12th of October, 1902 ;
and Beatrice, born on the 23d of June, 1905.
Mr. and Mrs. Cashion are decidedly promi-
nent and popular in connection with the best
social acti^'ities of Perryville and their at-
tractive home is widely renowned for its re-
finement and generous hospitality.
L. L. Bridges. There is no man in Scopus,
Bollinger county, Missouri, who is better
known than L. L. Bridges, whose family has
for years been connected with the agricul-
tural prosperity of the county. Mr. Bridges,
however, has not been content to rest upon
the reputation of his family, but is busily en-
gaged in making a name for himself, and as
teacher, farmer, merchant and postmaster he
has been eminently successful. Possibly the
man who decides on a certain business or in-
dustry when he first starts out in life and
devotes himself to that, and that alone, may
make more money than the one who has
turned his attention to different lines, but the
former misses much valuable experience en-
joyed by the man who has tried and made a
success of several branches of work.
Mr. Bridges began life on the farm one
mile east of Scopus where his parents, P. T.
and ilarzella Bridges, still reside. The father
and mother are both natives of Bollinger
county, were there educated and married,
and there they raised their family of six
children. L. L. Bridges made his fii-st ap-
pearance into the world on the 31st day of
August, 1887. As soon as he was old enough
he was sent to the district school, where he
received his earl.y educational training. On
completing the curriculum prescribed by
those schools, he attended the Will ilayfield
College at Slarble Hill, and on terminating
his college course, in 1907, he began to teach
school. The ensuing three years were divided
between teaching and working on the farm —
the winters being devoted to his pedagogical
efforts and the summers to the agricultural
pursuits. On the 6th day of March, 1910, he
purchased a half interest in the mercantile
store at Scopus, Mr. Bollinger owning the
other half. The firm was known as the Bol-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
linger and Bridges Mercantile Company until
June 30, 1911, at which time Mr. Bollinger
sold his interest in the store and Mr. Bridges
formed a jiartnership alliance with Lee
Tount. The new tirm, conducted imder the
name of L. L. Bridges and Company, is doing
an extensive business and carries a tine stock
of goods, at this time exceeding three thou-
sand dollars in value.
On Washington's birthday, 1911, Mr.
Bridges was united in marriage to iliss Lun-
da Yount. daughter of William B. Yount, of
Marble Hill. In addition to conducting the
store, ilr. Bridges is the postmaster of Sco-
pus. He is ambitious and is looking towards
the future as having something greater for
him than that he has already realized, and
it is safe to predict that with his youth, his
enthusiasm, his abilities and his industry, he
will not be disappointed.
Lee Turley, ]\I. D.. who is engaged in the
successful practice of his profession in the
thriving little city of Bonne Terre, St.
Francois county, is not only one of the repre-
sentative physicians and surgeons of the
county but is also a member of one of its old
and honored families, the prestige of whose
name he has admirably upheld. The Doctor
was born on the old homestead farm, about six
miles northwest of Bonne Terre, and the date
of his nativity Avas December 6, 1862. He
was the third in order of birth in a family
of nine children, and of the other children
two st)ns and three daughters are living.
The parents were William W. and IMary Em-
maline (Shelley) Turley, the former born in
this state and the latter in Tennessee. William
Wesley Turley was born near Hazel Run, St.
Francois count.v, in 1833, and was the only
son of the first marriage of his father, Aaron
Turley, who was one of the early settlere of
the county and who here continued to reside
until his death. William W. Turley devoted
his entire active life to the great basic industry
of agriculture, in connection with which,
through well directed efforts, he gained inde-
pendence and definite prosperity, the while
he so ordered his life in all its relations as to
merit and retain the unqualified confidence
and esteem of his fellow men. He was a loyal
soldier of the Union in the Civil war and
gave effective service as a member of a I\Iis-
souri regiment, with which he participated in
a number of engagements. In later years he
perpetuated the more gracious memories of
this service through his affiliation with the
Grand Army of the Republic, and his politi-
cal allegiance was given to the Democratic
party, though he never sought or desired pub-
lic office. He was a member of the time-
honored Masonic fraternity and was a zealous
member of the j\Iethodist Episcopal church,
South, as is also his wife, who is now venerable
in years and who resides at Melzo, Jefferson
county, this state. Their marriage was
solemnized when he was twenty years of age
and Mrs. Turley 's father, William Shelley,
was at the time one of the representative
farmers in the vicinity of Hazel Run, St.
Francois county. William W. Turley was
summoued to the life eternal in 1881, secure
in the high regard of all who knew him.
Dr. Lee Turley gained his early training
under the sturdy discipline of the old home-
stead farm on which he was born, and his pre-
liminary educational advantages were those
afforded in the public schools, including the
graded school in the village of Primrose.
Later he continued his studies for four years
in the academic department of the University
of Missouri, at Columbia, and in preparation
for his chosen profession he then entered the
:Missouri Medical College, at Columbia, Mis-
souri, in which he completed, with character-
istic ambition and close application, the pre-
scribed course, with the result that he was
graduated and received his well earned de-
gree of Doctor of Medicine in 1890. Shortly
afterward he began his professional novitiate
by opening an office in Bonne Terre, and the
best evidence of his technical ability, earnest
devotion to his work and sterling personal
characteristics is that afforded in the gratify-
ing success which he has achieved and the un-
equivocal popiilarity he has gained in the
community. He has built up a large and
representative practice, has continued a close
and appreciative student of his profession,
and has thus availed himself of the most
approved remedial agents and advanced
methods in both branches of his profession.
Though his ambitions have been solely
along the line of his profession Dr. Turley
has not been neglectful of civic duties but
has ever been ready to lend his co-operation
in the furtherance of measures and undertak-
ings pro.jected for the general good of the
community, the while he has been found
aligned as a stalwart supporter and advocate
of the cause of the Democratic party. He is
affiliated with the IMasonic fraternity, the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the
]\Iodern Woodmen of America, and the Order
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
763
of American Yeomen. Mrs. Turley is a mem-
ber of the Catholic church.
On the 25th of November, 1893, Dr. Turley
was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Lee
Bisch, who was born and reared in St. Fran-
cois county and who is a daughter of Theo-
dore and Jlary (Storaine) Bisch, both now
deceased. The attractive home of Dr. and
Mrs. Turley extends its hospitality to old and
young, and that the young folk of the com-
munity enjoy its privileges is assured by the
fact that within its confines brightness and
merriment is given by the fine family circle
of four sons and four daughters, whose names
are here entered in respective order of birth :
Storaine Joseph, Hubert Lee, Julia Eileen,
John Courtland, Hamilton Shelley, ]Mary
Crystal, Lois Delphine and Ruby Vincent.
Thomas B. Kinsolving. As a type of the
successful business man, showing what energy
and enterprise will accomplish in a new coun-
try, Thomas B. Kinsolving, of Hornersville,
is one of the most representative citizens of
Southeast Missouri, and his career has a gen-
eral interest as a feature of this history.
Born on a farm in Kentucky, April 26,
1862, and educated in the common schools,
he moved from there to Howell eount3% Mis-
souri, spent some time in West Plains and
Maiden, and in 1893 arrived in Hornersville.
He had a five-dollar bill and his clothes, that
constituted his working capital when he be-
gan his career here eighteen j-ears ago. The
railroad had not yet brought Hornersville
into communication with the outside world,
and he made his entry into town on a stage.
A few stores then marked the biisiness cen-
ter, but the day of progress and prosperity
had not begun for the town, and when it did
begin he was on the crest of the wave. For
a time he bought and sold game and fish, and
helped his brother during the first summer.
In the fall he was appointed postmaster of
the village, an oiBce which he filled to the
satisfaction of the patrons for eight years.
In three years, by hard work and economy,
he had saved two hundred dollars. He then
decided to learn the drug business. His
good friend. Dr. Mathews, agreed to help him
in this enterprise, and it was this kindly aid,
offered at a time when he most needed it,
that proved the starting point of his success.
He bought a stock of goods for four hundred
dollars, paying half in cash, and in sixty days
was able to pay the rest and thus established
his credit on a firm basis. He was the first
druggist in town, and kept the postoffice in
the same building. During the early years
of his postmastership he had handled the
mail in a grocery store. When the railroad
was built he put up a store nearer the river,
where he remained two years, and then
bought his present lot and moved his build-
ing to it. This frame building was burned
in June, 1910, and he has since replaced it
with a substantial one-story brick, twenty-
five by eighty feet. He owns the adjoining
building on a similar ground space. He now
carries the largest drug stock in town, valued
at four thousand dollars, ten times the worth
of the stock with which he began business.
He has prospered in every way. For a time
he was engaged in lending money at low rate
of interest to the farmers of this vicinity,
and had out about forty -five hundred dollars
the third year. He began buying stock in the
Bank of Hornersville, and later formed a stock
company of which he is vice president, this
company engaging in loans and investment
business, and for a time competed with the
local bank. He has dealt considerably in
lands. He now owns near town a farm of
one hundred and four acres, some of the best
land in the county, improved with good
buildings, and is cultivated on the shares by
a tenant. He has two other tracts, one of
thirty and the other of fifty-five acres. In
town he owns ten acres in addition to the
fine four-acre plot on which his residence is
located. Mr. Kinsolving lived in a very small
house during his first yeai's in Hornersville,
but he now has a home that cost six thousand
dollars and is the best residence in town.
Mr. Kinsolving is one of the leading ]\Ia-
sons of this vicinity, being afiSliated with the
lodge at Hornersville, the chapter at Ken-
nett and the council at Campbell, and has
taken all the York Rite work except the
Knight Templar. He is also a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He was married at Hornersville, July 11,
1898, to Miss Ella Black. They have two
children: Elzora, born in 1900; and Aimer,
born in 1905. The family are members of the
Methodist church.
J. Hexrt Steatsxson. Of that public spir-
ited and generally creditable type of citizen-
ship upon which the strength of JMadison
county is so securely founded is J. Henr\'
Stevenson, a farmer and stockman, whose
splendid farm of more than two hundred
acres is located some three miles northeast of
Frederiektown. He has devoted a great deal
764
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
of intelligent effort to the breeding o±' tine
stock, and it is to sueli as he that the high
reputation enjoyed by the county in this line
IS due, some of the finest breeds being repre-
sented upon his farm. In addition to his
other distinctions he is a veteran of the Civil
war, in which he was mustered out as second
lieutenant of Company A, Bui-bridge's regi-
ment.
Mr. Stevenson enjoys the somewhat un-
usual experience of living at the present time
upon the very farm \ipon which his birth oc-
curred on November 17, 18-41. He is the sou
of Hugh B. and IMelissa (Kelly) Stevenson,
of Scotch and Irish descent, respectively.
The former was born in Lincoln county.
North Carolina, as was his wife, and came to
Jlissouri, locating on the farm now owned by
his son in Madison county. That was in
1826 and they brought with them their eldest
child, then an infant. The land was then all
in timber, and this plucky pioneer grubbed a
place for his log-house, which is still standing.
Hugh B. Stevenson died at this place about
the year 1880, being then about seventy-five
years of age. He was a Democrat and a good
citizen. His wife preceded him to the Great
Beyond by a number of years, dying at the
Madison county home in 1867, when between
sixty and sixty-five years of age. She was
a member of the Christian church and a
daughter of Enoch Kelly. The family of
which she was a member was a large one, and
one of her brothers, John Kelly, came to
Missouri, but died in the early days. The
Kelly family was one of the oldest in North
Carolina. He whose name inaugurates this re-
view was one of a family of ten children,
eight of whom were reared to maturity, as
follows: Robert, a farmer, died in Califor-
nia; Ben.iamin. also a farmer, passed away
at his home in the Golden state; Jlrs. Mar-
garet Gill died in Missoi;ri some years ago :
Mrs. Olivia Counts is deceased; Mrs. Joseph
Anthony is a widow residing in Frederick-
town ; Mrs. Louisa ]\IcKinsey is a widow re-
siding in St. Louis; Joseph died at Charles-
ton, ^fissonri.
J. Henry Stevenson has spent his entire
life amid his present surroundings. He was
educated in the common schools and since ar-
riving at years of usefulness and discretion
ha.s followed farming and stock-raising. He
makes a specialty of the finer breeds, such a.^
Aberdeen and Angus cattle and Poland China
hogs.
Mr. Stevenson was married here to Frances
Noell, who was .born in iladison county, in
1848, the daughter of Edward NoeU, de-
ceased. Her mother's maiden name was
Elizabeth Parkin. One brother, Charles, re-
sides in Oklahoma. ^Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson
have an interesting family of seven children,
all born at this home and all living. Alice is
the wife of George Elder, a barber, residing
at Fredericktown, and has one son, Ralph.
Robert, of Perry county, is a farmer and
school teacher; he married Rosy Shields and
has one daughter, jMarj'. Harr}' is a carpen-
ter, making his home in St. Louis; Laurence
is at home; George, of Nevada, is a black-
smith by occupation; Miss Dove is at home;
and Frederick resides in St. Louis, his occu-
pation being that of a mail clerk between St.
Louis and Kansas City, on the Missouri Pa-
cific Railwaj'.
The beautiful and commodious Stevenson
home has been but recently completed, and
the carpentrj' work was all done by members
of the family, the son Harry taking a lead-
ing part in the same. The subject is in har-
mony with the policies and principles advo-
cated by the Democratic party and is help-
fully interested in all public issues \j'hich af-
fect the welfare of the community. He takes
great pleasure in his lodge relations, having
belonged to the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows since young manhood and being a
member of the Ancient Order of United
Workmen, both in Fredericktown. He and
his wife are both members of the Christian
church. As before mentioned. Mr. Stevenson
is a veteran of the war between the states,
having been a member of General Sterling
Price's command. He spent three years in
the service, eighteen months of which were
passed as a prisoner of war. He was captured
near Doniphan, Missouri, and was incarcer-
ated at various places, — at fronton. Camp
Chase, St. Louis and Delaware. He enlisted
when not yet twenty years of age and was
never seriously injured on the field. As a
member of the Confederate Veterans' Asso-
ciation of Fredericktown. he finds many an
opportunity to review the stirring events of
fifty years ago.
John Americus Knowles. One of the rep-
resentative young citizens of Madison county
is John Americus Knowle,s. postmaster at
Plat River and ever^-where regarded as one of
the ablest and most faithful of the servants
of Uncle Sam. He has held this office since
1905. and in the six vears since that date has
.i<MM^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
765
afforded satisfaction of the highest character
to the community. He was born in Madison
count}', Missouri, January 30, 1879, and is
the scion of a Southern family, his father,
Benjamin Clardy Knowles, being a native of
the state of Tennessee. The elder gentleman
was reared on a farm in Tennessee, and later
in life removed to Illinois, where after a pe-
riod in which he engaged in agi-icuture he
went on to ilissouri. This was shortly pre-
vious to the birth of his son, John A., the
identitieation of the family with the state be-
ing now of about thirtj'-five years' duration.
In Madison county Benjamin Clardy Knowles
bought a tract of land and entered upon its
improvement and cultivation, meeting with
prosperity and becoming well known and
highly respected in the section. In Madison
count.v he married Miss Catherine Tinnin. of
Bollinger county, who died when twenty-nine
years of age, and to their union a family of
six children was born, as follows: William
Anson ; Emma, now Mrs. R. Meyers ; Dora,
wife of George W. Smith; John Americus,
immediate subject of this review; Claude
Lester; and Charles H. Mr. Knowles, Sr.,
married ilrs. Helen iloyers for his second
wife, and they are now residing in Freder-
icktown, Madison county, and are practically
retired, enjoying in leisure the fruits of their
former industry and thrift and having time
for the cultivation of the finer things of life.
The father is aligned as a stalwart supporter
of the policies and principles of what its ad-
mirers are pleased to call the "Grand Old
Party." and he and his admirable wife are
zealous and consistent members of the ]\Ieth-
odist Episcopal church. He has fraternal af-
filiations with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Ancient Order of United
Workmen.
The early life of John Americus Knowles
was spent upon his father's farm and he had
the opportunity of the usual country boy of
becoming thoroughly familiar with agricul-
ture in its many departments. He received
his early education in the country schools of
his district aiid also attended the graded
schools of Frederiektown. Not feeling in-
clined to adopt farming, as his own occupa-
tion, he came to town and for one year held
a clerkship in a store. He* abandoned that
and secured a position in the smelting and re-
fining department of the Central Lead Com-
pany and subsequently became a stationars-
engineer for the Central Lead Company, re-
taining this positon for no less than five years.
At the end of that time he was appointed
postmaster of Flat River, and as mentioned
m a preceding paragi-aph, he still retains the
same. He is one of the prominent men of the
locality and stands high in the regard of his
fellow citizens.
Mr. Knowles married, on the 29th dav of
April, 1900, Birdie L. Mitchell, of Flat Rh-er,
daughter of William H. Mitchell, a carpenter
and joiner. Three children have been born
into the home of ]Mr. and JMrs. Knowles,
namely: Harley L., Claude L. and Papinta.
The head of the house is an enthusiastic ad-
herent of the Republican party, doing all in
his power to advance its interests, and he and
his wife are members of the Methodist Epis-
copal church. Mr. Knowles enjoys fraternal
relations with no less than six lodges, namely,
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the
Knights of P.ythias, the Eagles, the Modem
Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of
United Workmen, and the Knights of the
Maccabees, and in all these circles he is pop-
ular and prominent.
Charley Pincknet Wilkson, circuit clerk
of Saint Francois county, Missouri, is an
efficient public official and is exceedingly
popular in the community by reason of an
engaging personality and great loyality to
his friends and the community in which his
interests are centered. Mr. Wilkson was
born near Bonne Terre. October 3, 1872. He
is the son of John Wilkson, who was bom
in Jefferson coimty in the year 1847. The
early life of the elder gentleman was spent
on the farm and he received his education in
the country schools. At the age of seventeen
years he went to work in Valley ]\Iines and
he was long identified with this field of in-
dustry. He married Mary C. Haverstick, a
native of Jefi'erson county, Missouri, and to
their union were born four sons, as follows:
William, deceased ; Charles P., the imme-
diate subject of this review; Lewns, de-
ceased; and John, who resides near Farm-
ington, Missouri. The subject's mother
went on to the "Undiscovered Country"
when he was a boy, and the father contracted
a second marriage. Ellen Stringer, of Jef-
ferson county, becoming his wife. To this
union three children were born, the two
elder, James Albert and Hattie M.. being de-
ceased ; and Emma M. being the wife of
Henry Owens. The senior Mr. Wilkson is
still living at Bonne Terre. where he is en-
gaged in the liquor business. He is Demo-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nSSOURI
cratic in politics and is affiliated fraternally
with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.
The early life of Charles Pinckney Wilk-
son was passed in Bonne Terre and in the
public schools of that place he received his
preliminary education. He subsequently at-
tended the Baptist College and Judge R. S.
Thurman's Select School for Boys, at Farm-
ington, and in the meantime came to the
conclusion to adopt the legal profession as
his own. To secure the necessary training
he entered the State University at Columbia,
Missouri, and was graduated from the law
department of that institution in 1898, re-
ceiving the degree of LL. B. After his grad-
uation Jlr. Wilkson hung out his shingle at
Farmington and in a very short time his fine
native and acquired abilities received such
recognition that his professional reputation
soon spread throughout the county. After
practicing a short time he received the ap-
pointment of deputy clerk of the Circuit
Court and proved his usefulness in this pub-
lic capacity. It proved the highway to the
major otfice and in 1906 he himself was
elected circuit clerk, and in 1910, received
the re-election. He is of the type of citizen-
ship upon which Saint Francois county bases
its pride and doubtless no small amount of
public usefulness awaits him.
Mr. Wilkson established a happy house-
hold and a congenial life companionship
when, on July 26, 1900, at Bonne Terre, he
was united in marriage to Miss Mamie G.
Bradley, daughter of the well-known citizen,
J. J. Bradley. Mr. and Mrs. "Wilkson are
the parents of a promising family of five
children, three of whom are sons and two
daughters, namely: Charles Albert, Berkley
Genevieve, Adiel, Lewis and Virginia.
Mr. Wilkson 's political convictions are in
harmony with the principles advanced by
the Democratic party. His social and fra-
ternal proclivities are marked and he is
prominent and popular as a member of the
Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Eagles. He is an enthusias-
tic college man and still maintains active re-
lations with the two Greek letter societies —
Beta Theta Pi and Phi Delta Phi— which he
joined while at Columbia.
Albert Koppitz. To him whose name
forms the caption for this article much of the
credit for Pacific's thrifty, enterprising con-
dition and spirit of progi-essiveness is due,
Mr. Koppitz having been elected mayor of
this city the first time in 1890. It requires
business acumen, tactful judgment, unfalter-
ing energy and undaunted fearlessness to
successfully manage the aJfairs of a munici-
pality, and such qualities Mr. Koppitz has
shown, as is evinced by the fact that he is
now serving his fifth term in the official chair
of Pacific.
Albert Koppitz was born at Kuttelberg,
Austria, April 27, 1852, a son of Benjamin
and Johanna (Pflieger) Koppitz, the former
the owner of a flour and saw mill in that
country, where he and his wife lived and
died. They became the parents of ten chil-
dren, of whom six are now living, but of this
number only two, Konrad and our subject,
braved the dangers of the briny deep in carv-
ing out for themselves fortunes in a new^ land.
Konrad is the senior member of the firm of
Koppitz-Melcher Brewing Comjjany, of De-
troit, IMichigan, a successful enterprise of
that state.
The childhood of Albert Koppitz was
passed among rural surroundings, his educa-
tion being secured in the common schools of
his native country, and they were not of the
best. His chief assets, therefore, when he be-
gan working on his own accord, were indus-
try, energy and perseverance, and he deter-
mined to master some trade. He accordingly
was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and after
mastering that he entered his father's mill
and learned that business. Thus equipped
with the know-ledge of two important trades,
he and his brother Konrad came to the
United States in 1872, settling at Chicago.
He spent three years in that city engaged at
the forge, and then moved to Kinsley, Kan-
sas, where he followed the plow for a short
time. Later he was employed as foreman in
a flouring mill, but in 1879 he decided to re-
turn east. He accordingly retraced his steps
and settled for a few months at Chicago, and
then, being offered the superintendency of a
mill at Lawrenoeburg, Indiana, he removed
to that city. Having pretty well mastered
the English language by this time, he became
quite invaluable to his new employers, who
sent him to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1881. where
lie remained for two years. In 1883, how-
ever, he located at Columbia, Illinois, where
he engaged in the same business until he came
to Pacific, ilissouri, in 1885. Here Mr. Kop-
pitz entered into partnership with W. B.
Smith and bought a flour-mill, which busi-
ness was successfully carried on until 1902.
when ]\Ir. Koppitz bought out his partner's
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .MISSOURI
interest ajid has since been the principal
o^^■ner and proprietor of the Banner Roller
Mills, as they are now called. In 1888 the
company engaged in the retail lumber busi-
ness in Pacitic, and this phase of the enter-
prise has so prospered as to warrant the es-
tablishment of a branch yard at Eureka,
ilissouri.
Xor are Mr. Kappitz's interests confined
entirely within the scope of his roller mills.
In 1892 the Pacific Bank opened its doors to
depositors, with a capital stock of ten thou-
sand dollars. He was chosen president of the
institution and has since continued in that
office, serving in his capacity ably and well.
In 1894 the Pacific Electric Light Company
was organized, another one of Pacific's enter-
prising ventures, and our subject was made
its president and still holds this chair.
In politics ]\Ir. Koppitz is independent. He
began his official life in local affairs as a
member of the city council of Pacific, and,
as above stated, is now filling his fifth terra
as mayor of this charming little city. He is
ever on the alert for improvement, it being
his initiative that brought about the establish-
ment of an electric light plant here; and his
interest in street welfare launched. the move-
ment to macadamize certain of the public
streets ; while the question of an efficient and
modern city water plant is now being agi-
tated. Mr. Koppitz belongs to that time-
honored fraternity. Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, in which body he has held the
chair of Worshipful Master two terms.
On July 29, 187.3, Mr. Koppitz was united
in marriage in Chicago to Miss Barbara
German, born at Bavaria, Germany, Decem-
ber 25, 1856. The children of this union are
Albert, who is s\iperintendent of the electric
light plant at Marissa, Illinois; William, a
machinist in Detroit, Michigan; and Tillie,
the wife of H. J. Hillbrand. of Pacific, Mis-
souri. IMr. and Mrs. Koppitz maintain a
hospitable and charming home in Pacific,
which is always open to their friends and
neighbors, and where any one desiring com-
fort or good cheer can readily find it.
Daxtel C. Zimmerman. Among Bollinger
county's prosperous and representative asri-
cultnrists Daniel C. Zimmerman stands
prominent. He engages in general farming
and stock raising and his very desirable farm
of three hundred and seven acres is situated
about two miles northwest of Glen Allen. He
lias been identified with this section through-
out almost his entire life time and he is very
loyal to its interests, not indeed in a selfish
fashion, for there is nothing of public import
in which he is not helpfully interested, or any
local movement which in his judgment prom-
ises to benefit any considerable number of
his fellow citizens that does not have his cor-
dial advocacy and generous support.
Mr. Zimmerman was born in Bollinger
county, Missouri, on the 7th day of Jiuie,
1S50, and is a son of N. M. and Sarah Ann
Eliza (Bowman) Zimmerman, both of whom
were natives of North Carolina, and of old,
aristocratic families. The father is a son of
ilichael and Phoebe Zimmerman, who were
also natives of the so-called "Old North
State." The parents of the subject came to
Bollinger county in 1849 and became expo-
nents of the great basic industry, and it was
upon the old homestead that the early days
of Mr. Zimmerman were passed. Under his
father's tutelage he learned the many secrets
of seed-time and harvest and laid the foun-
dation for the thorough knowledge of farm-
ing which he now possesses. In 1871 Mr.
Zimmerman, who had just attained to his ma-
jority, started out for himself and for three
years was engaged as a railroader. Subse-
quent to that he went to Texas, and in the
Lone Star state spent two years as a farm
hand. He still remembered Missouri with
great affection, however, and at the end of the
two years he came back and after a time pur-
chased land. He has added to this from time
to time and now owns three hundred and
seven acres, fertile and well improved, upon
which he conducts successful farming opera-
tions. This, as before mentioned, is only two
miles northwest of Glen Allen. He raises
some stock of good quality and at present
owns six head of horses and mules, twenty
head of cattle and sixteen head of hogs.
Mr. Zimmerman established an independent
household in 1882 by his marriage to Mrs.
Mary E. Deck, a widow, daiighter of Aaron
and Drusilla ]\IeKelvy, natives of Tennessee
and ^Missouri, respectively. l\Ir. Zimmerman
has reared beneath his roof-tree three chil-
dren of his own and one step-daughter. His
eldest dauEchter. Caroline E., born in 1883. is
the wife of Forest Bollinger: Edgar N.. born
in 1885. resides near his father and he mar-
ried ^Farada Shetly: Lillian L., born in 1890.
is at home. The daughter by Mrs. Zimmer-
man's previous marriage. May, is the wife of
Juan F. Sites.
Mr. Zimmerman is a valued and consistent
768
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
member of the Cliristiau church and he is in-
dependent in his political eonvictious, esteem-
ing the best man and the best measure high
above mere partisanship.
Thomas P. Kirkma^'. AVhatever be the
discouragements and difficulties that a man
may have to meet in his early life, he is sui-e
to come out on top if he has the right stuff in
him. Thomas P. Kirkmau for many years
had a very hard time to get along, but now
he is one of the successful farmers of Dunk-
lin countj'.
He was born in Tennessee, in Chester
county, December 7, 1845. He went to school
in his native state but did not receive the ad-
vantages of many years of schooling, as he
was obliged to work on his father's farm.
He stayed in Tennessee until he was twenty-
eight years old, moving to Pemiscot county,
Missouri, in 1874. He bought some land and
farmed in the county for nineteen years, but
somehow or other did not meet with great
success. He stayed on year after year, hop-
ing all the time that things would improve,
but at last he made up his mind that it was
no use remaining there any longer. He was
not, however, discouraged, rather was deter-
mined to win out somewhere else. He came
to Dunklin county in 1892, settling on John-
son's Island, where he lived for four years
and was doing very well there, but he is now
farming sixty-two acres of land that belong
to his mother-in-law and making a great suc-
cess.
In 1868. while he was living in Tennessee,
Mr. Kirkman married Nancy Mayfield, a na-
tive of Tennessee. Four children were born
to the union. John, Rosa, Landrum and Eva
Mrs. Kirkman died in Pemiscot county, Mis-
souri, in 1883. while they were still strug-
gling to make both ends meet on the farm.
In 1896 he married Mrs. Mary Meharg, a
widow with five children ; Alice, who lives in
New Mexico; Will, who is in Clay county,
Arkansas; Chattie, who is in Senath, Mis-
souri; DeWitt, who is in St. Louis; and
James, who is at home with his mother and
stepfather. Three children have been born
to Mr. Kirkman and his second wife, Bettie,
Sam and Hattie.
Mr. Kirkman belongs to the Farmers'
Union of Missouri. He is a member of the
Mission Baptist church of Kennett and is an
active worker in that small but enterpris-
ing church. In politics he is a Democrat.
always anxious for his party to come out
ahead. During the time he has been in the
county he has become very well known and
respected. Whether it is that he can manage
a farm for somebody else better than he can
for himself, or whether conditions were just
against him, it is certain that he has been
more successful in looking after the interests
of his mother-in-law than he ever was in farm-
ing on his own account. Whatever the
cause, however, he is now doing well. He
takes the greatest interest in the welfare of
Dunklin county, his adopted home, and stands
ready at all times to do anything he can to
better conditions.
William Everett Crow, editor of the Jc/-
fcrson County Republican, is the eldest son
of the Reverend David W. Crow, whose work
in the ilethodist church of Missouri has had
so much to do with the growth of that de-
nomination in the state. David Crow was
born in South Carolina, in 1840, but came
with his parents to Perry county at an early
age. After some j-ears on the farai he went
into the milling business and was engaged in
that work when Lincoln called for volunteers.
Leaving his mill running, he went to war.
At the close of that heart-breaking period of
our history, he returned to Peri-y county and
taught school. He had obtained his educa-
tion by his own efforts, being always eager to
avail himself of chances to add to his knowl-
edge. At the old Crossroads church in Perry
county he preached his first sermon. Mr.
Crow was a circuit rider and lived the strenu-
ous and devoted life that such a calling
means. He established churches in Perry,
Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Stoddard
counties.
In 1864 Reverend Crow married Miss Re-
becca Bollinger, of BoUinger county. Seven
children were born to this union: W. E. Crow,
the subject of this review; N. E. Crow; E.
M. Crow, who follows his father's profession;
Viola, Mrs. W. R. ilcCormick; ilinnie, Mrs.
Charles Tibbetts; Millie, wife of Reverend
Ray G. Crew; and Allen, now dead.
For six years Reverend Crow was presiding
elder of this district. He is now located at
DeSoto, where he has served as pastor for
sixteen years. Before settling in DeSoto,
Reverend Crow was for five years pastor at
Joplin, Missouri.
His eldest son. W. E. Crow, born Septem-
ber 3, 1866. at Perry^'ille, obtained his edu-
cation in the public schools of Perry county
and in the Mayfield Smith Academy at Marble
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI
769
Hill. The family moved to Stoddard county
after William had attended the academy
two terms and in the new home the boy went
to work in the printing office of the Bloom-
field Vindicator, of which Mr. C. A. Mosley
was editor. The business appealed to Mr.
Crow and when he came to DeSoto in 1890 he
continued to work at printing and later
bought the paper which he now owns and
edits.
]Mr. Crow has been prominent in the Re-
publican party, to which be contributes no
little strength both by his paper and by his
personal influence. In 1896 he was a mem-
ber of the Republican state committee. He
has served DeSoto four years as city clerk
and was eight years postmaster, being ap-
pointed to this office by president McKinley
in 1896. He was twice chairman of the
county committee and is now secretary of
that organization.
Mr. Crow's marriage to Miss Bessie J.
Butler took place in 1894. One daughter,
Lulu A., and three sons, Harry S., Ralph and
David Benjamin, have been the issue of this
union.
As might be expected, Mr. Crow is a mem-
ber of the ilethodist church. He holds mem-
bership in the Masonic lodge, in the Knights
of Pythias and in the Ancient Order of
United Workmen. None of Mr. Crow's social
affiliations or his public offices interfere with
his work on his paper. Through its pages he
has worked efi^ectively for the prosperity of
the town. The fine post office building and
the opera house are assets which were secured
largely through the instrumentality of the
Jefferson County Eepublican.
Henry F. "Weiss. Among the citizens of
Perrj^dlle, Missouri, who have been largely
influential in promoting the progress and
development of this section of the state, is
Henry F. Weiss, the present able and popular
incumbent of the office of mayor of the city.
Mr. Weiss is decidedly loyal and public-spir-
ited in his civic attitude and as a business
man and official he is held in high esteem on
account of his fair and honorable methods
and his sterling integrity.
A native of Perryville, Henry P. Weiss
was born on the 17th of November, 1868, and
he is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kiefner)
Weiss, the former of whom was bom and
reared in Gennanj' and the latter of whom
claims Bavaria, Germany, as the place of her
nativity. The father continued to reside in
the old Fatherland until he had attained the
age of twenty-five years, when he immigrated
to the United States. Location was first made
in the state of Minnesota and subsequently
he lived for a time in Iowa and Ohio, eventu-
ally settling in Missouri. As a young man
he served three j-ears in the German army
and in his native land he familiarized him-
self with the ins and outs of the brewery
business, to which line of enterprise he de-
voted the major portion of his time during
his entire active career. He is now living
retired, with his wife, at Perrj^ville, where
he is passing the evening of his life in full en-
joyment of former years of earnest toil and
endeavor. Mr. Joseph Weiss married Miss
Elizabeth Kiefner, in 1867, and to this union
were born six children, concerning whom a
brief record is here ofi'ered, — Henry F. is the
immediate subject of this review ; Jlinnie is
the wife of William Hartung and they reside
at Cape Girardeau, Missouri; ]Mary is now
Mrs. A. M. Thieret and she maintains her
home at Perryville, Missouri; and Louisa,
Josephine and Lewis I. remain at the paren-
tal home.
To the public schools of Perryville Mr.
Weiss of this notice, is indebted for his pre-
liminary educational discipline and for two
terms he was a student in a German parochial
school in this city. As a young man he
learned the milling business and for fourteen
years he was in the employ of the Welcome
mills, now the Perrj^Ue Milling Company.
For the past ten years he has been engaged
in the business of buying wheat for the St.
Mary's Milling Company, a large and promi-
nent concei-n at Perr^^-ille. In his political
convictions Mr. Weiss is aligned as a stalwart
in the ranks of the Republican party, in the
local councils of which he is a most important
and active factor. In 1906 he was elected
to membership on the Perryville board of
aldermen and at the expiration of his two-
year term, he was further honored by his
fellow citizens in that he was then chosen for
the office of mayor of the city. He is now
filling his second term as mayor and he is
proving a most capable administrator of the
municipal affairs of the city. Under his
supervision Perrj-ville has built three miles
of granitoid walks and he has done a gi-eat
deal to advance the best interests of the
community at large. In a fraternal way Mr.
Weiss is affiliated with the Fraternal Order of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Eagles, the Ancient Order of United Work-
men and with a number of other representa-
tive social organizations.
In the year 1898 ilr. Weiss was united in
marriage to J\Iiss Lena Schott, whose birth
occurred at Apple Creek, Perry county, Mis-
souri, and who is a daughter of Joseph and
Mary (Ponder) Schott. 2Ir. and Mrs. Weiss
have five children, whose names are here
entered in respective order of birth, — Elmer,
Freda, i\Iarie, Roland and Helen. In relig-
ious faith Mr. Weiss is a Lutheran, while the
balance of the Weiss family are devout mem-
bers of the Catholic church and they are aU
ever on the alert to do all in their power to
advance benevolent and charitable work in
the city.
Charles F. Bollinger, an influential
farmer in Pattou, Bollinger county, Missouri,
after engaging in milling for a short time
has come back to the farm as the place to
perform his life work. Every year there are
an increasing number of men who become
farmers on their own account, which is a
very desirable condition of affairs. Mr. Bol-
linger realizes that a man should receive the
rewards of his own labors, and there is no
class of work in which this is so much the
case as in agricultural pureuits.
The scene of Mr. Bollinger's entrance into
the world was a farm on Little Whitewater
Creek, Bollinger county, where his parents,
Henry A. and Mary T. Bollinger, still main-
tain their residence. This worthy couple
were the parents of twelve children, eleven of
whom are living, — Emma, Charles F., Sarah,
Philip, Grover, Orlean, Anion, Joseph, Kyes,
Robert and Treecy.
Brought up on his father's farm, Charles
F. Bollinger early learned to take his part
in the conduct of the work, and until he was
twenty years of age he divided his time be-
tween his educational training and the cul-
tivation of the land. He then entered the em-
ploy of Hawn and Bollinger, millers at Pat-
ton, Missouri, made himself master of the
milling industrJ^ and in 1901 purchased the
mill. He successfully superintended its man-
agement for the ensuing two years, when he
disposed of his holdings and in 1903 and 1904
was employed by the Whitewater Stave Fac-
tory. By that time he had determined to re-
turn to the farm and is now the proprietor of
one hundred and thirty acres of good land in
tlie Little Whitewater Valley, on which he
erected a ])('autiful residence in May, 1909.
The year which marked Mr. Bollinger 's re-
turn to farming was also noteworthy as be-
ing the one in which he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Priscilla Seabaugh, the union
having been consummated on the 20th day of
March, 1904. They now have three children,
Delcie, born May 8, 1905 ; Christian S., whose
birth occurred on the 8th day of April, 1906 ;
and Henry Lavina, the date of whose nativity
was July 25, 1911. Mrs. Bollinger is a
daughter of Christian and Sarah E. (Masters)
Seabaugh, well known residents of Bollinger
county.
Christian Seabaugh, a farmer and stock
raiser, was born on the first day of March,
1850, in the county in which he always re-
sided. His father was Christian and his
mother Priscilla ; his grandfather, Christian,
was a native of North Carolina and later be-
came a settler in this county. He located on
a Spanish grant of land about six miles east
of the place where the grandson now resides.
Christian Seabaugh (III), by reason of his
industry, accumulated an estate of eleven
hundred acres and a few years ago he settled
all but eight hundred acres on his children.
In 1869 he married Miss Sarah Masters,
daughter of Christopher Masters, of Bollinger
county, and he became the father of ten
children, eight of whom are living, — Pris-
cilla, wife of C. F. Bollinger, the subject of
this sketch; whose birth occurred June
12, 1873 ; Wilbert E., a farmer, born June 22,
1875; Christian C, a farmer, who began life
January 12, 1879 ; Dayton, the date of whose
birth was August 22, 1882; Dr. 0. L., who
was born January 9, 1885, one of Patton's
prominent physicians, whose biography ap-
pears on other images of this history; EfSe,
whose birth occurred March 13, 1887; Ottie,
born July 19, 1889; and Louis Arnold, the
date of whose birth was October 13, 1891.
Mrs. Bollinger belongs to the Lutheran
church, and the husband is a member of the
ilutual Protective League. He has never
cared to dabble much in politics, and he be-
lieves that the fitness of the man for office is
of more consequence than the predominance
of any party. Mr. and Mrs. Bollinger have
many friends in the county which bears their
name — friends who respect and esteem both
husband and wife.
William B. Finney, M. D. There is no
profession that is fraught with more re-
sponsibility than the medical and no profes-
sion needs more knowledge, training and
WILLIAM B. FINNEY
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
culture than this same medical profession.
In addition to this the suitability of the
man himself must be taken into considera-
tion, for without such suitability he cannot
hope to be successful. A doctor must not
only know medical terms and remedies and
be conversant with the latest discoveries of
his colleagues, but he must know men. He
must study psychology as well as physiology.
As a matter of fact the true physician is
never graduated, but is always a student.
Dr. Finney is a physician who comes up to
all of the requirements mentioned above.
By nature, adaptability, training, education
and experience, he is a physician who is a
success in his practice.
"William B. Finney was born the first day
of the j'ear 1858. His father was James M.
Finney, who married Mary A. Smith, both
natives of Illinois. James Finney served
for several years as sheriff in Johnson county.
William B. attended the public schools at
Buncumbe. Illinois, after which he went to
Ewing College in Franklin county, Illinois.
After his course at Ewing he had decided
that he wanted to become a physician and
with that end in view he entered the College
of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis,
from which he was graduated, with the de-
gree of Doctor of Lledicine, in the class of
1890. After his graduation he started to prac-
tice at Laflin, ilissouri, remaining there until
December, 1892, at which time he came to
Kennett, ilissouri. He has remained here
ever since that time, with an ever growing
practice. He tries to keep up with current
events in his profession and with that view
he is a member of the County Medical Asso-
ciation, the State Association, the American
Medical Association and of the Southeastern
Medical Society. His practice is a general
one.
On the 2nd of August, 188.5, the Doctor was
married to ]\Iartha E. Clippard, a native
of Cape Girardeau county and daughter
of Judge AY. G. Clippard, of Bollinger
county, ilissouri. She is a graduate of the
College at Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau
county. Five children have been born to
the union, but one son, Hubert Clip-
pard died when two years old. YTilliam 0.,
born July 13. 1887, is a graduate of the Mis-
souri State Normal. He took up the study
of medicine, being graduated from the St.
Louis University in 1910. He makes a spe-
cialty of surgery and is now located at Chaf-
fee, ^Missouri. He is a thirty-second degree
^lason. The next son, Ernest Green, is also
devoting his life to the medical profession.
He was born November 11, 1888, and is just
graduated from the St. Louis University, in
the class of 1911. He is starting in practice
with his father. Earl G. was born June 7,
1894, and is at present a senior student in
the Kennett high school. The Doctor's only
daughter, Mary Eula, was born October 22,
1897, and she is at home with her parents,
a junior in the High School at Kennett. The
Doctor and his family are members of ^Metho-
dist Episcopal church. South.
Dr. Finney is a Democrat, but he has
always made a point of keeping out of poli-
tics. He stands high in the Masonic order,
having taken the thirty-second degree. He
is a member of the Blue Lodge at Kennett
and of the Scottish Rite line in the Valley of
St. Louis. He also belongs to the Knights
of P.ythias and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. The Doctor owns seventeen
hundred acres of land in Dunklin county,
of which he has already developed six
hundred acres. He rents this land to tenants,
growing cotton and corn for the most part
and he also owns property in Kennett, valued
at about twenty thousand dollars. The Doctor
has a pleasant residence in a big yard,
where there are a fine lot of native "oaks
standing nearly one hundred feet high, in
addition to other varieties which he set out
himself. His is one of the pleasantest homes
in Kennett.
John H. M.vlugen. Numbered among the
representative members of the bar of St.
Francois county and a scion of one of the
sterling pioneer families of this county, with
whose history the name has been identified
for more than three-fourths of a century, :\Ir.
ilalugen is engaged in the active practice of
his profession in the village of Bonne Terre.
He is a citizen of prominence and influence
in the community and his personal popu-
larity attests the sterling attributes of his
character.
John Henry ilalugen was born on a farm
near Bismarck. St. Francois county, on the
12th of July, 1859, and is a son of Thomas
Benton Malugen and ]\Iary Jane (Tulloch)
Alalugen, whose marriage was solemnized on
the 6th of November. 1856. Thomas B. :\Ia-
lugen was born near French village. St. Fran-
cois county, on the 4th of September, 18.3-4,
and he was three years of age at the time of
his mother's death. "When he was a lad of
772
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI
seven years his father also passed away, and
he was reared to maturity on the farm of
John Tulloeh, in the same locality iu which
he was born, the while he was afforded the
advantages of the common schools of the lo-
cality and period. He finally wedded Miss
ilary Jane Tulloeh, a niece of his employer
and fosterfather and a daughter of Henry
Tulloeh, a representative of a family that was
founded in this section of ^lissouri about the
year 1814. The father of Thomas B. Malugen
was a man in most modest circumstances at
the time of his death, and thus slight pro-
vision was made for the care of the son. He
had been a soldier in the war of 1812, in
which he took part in the battle of New
Orleans, under General Jackson, Thomas B,
^Malugen devoted his entire active career to
agricultural pursuits and was one of the
prosperous farmers and honored citizens of
hif native state at the time of his death, his
wife surviving him by several years. He
served as a private soldier in the Civil war
and he was wounded in action at the time of
Price's raid. He never recovered from the
effects of this injury, which was the primary
cause of his death, which occurred on the
2d of January, 1888, his cherished and de-
voted wife being summoned to the life eternal
on the 22d of September, 1906, secure in the
affectionate regard of all who knew her.
Both were earnest and zealous members of
the Baptist church and Mr. Malugen was a
close student of the Bible, He continued to
follow agricultural pursuits in St, Francois
county until 1878, when he purchased a farm
in "Wayne county, where he continued to re-
side until his death. His widow then sold
the farm and removed to Piedmont, Wayne
county, where she passed the residue of her
life. They became the parents of nine chil-
dren, of whom the sub.iect of this review was
the second in order of birth, and all of the
five sons and four daughters are now living.
The father was a stanch Democrat in his
political proclivities and was a man of strong
convictions and broad views.
John H. Malugen passed his boyhood days
on the homestead farm near Bismarck, St.
Francois county, and in the schools of the
locality he secured his early educational dis-
cipline, which was supplemented by a coiirse
in the high school at Piedmont, Wayne
county. His ambition prompted him to fur-
ther effort in educational lines and he finally
entered the ^lissouri State Normal School at
Cape Girardeau, in which he was graduated
as a member of the class of 1884 and from
which he received the degree of Master of
Scientific Didactics. After his graduation he
became principal of the high school at Car-
thage, Jasper county, and for fifteen years he
was engaged in successful pedagogic work in
the schools of the state, AYithin this period
he was for five years superintendent of the
public schools of Bonne Terre, his present
home, and he also served as superintendent
of the Indian Industrial Schools at Sisseton
and Pine Ridge agencies, in South Dakota.
In the meanwhile ^Ir. ]\lalugen had pros-
ecuted the study of law with much assiduous-
ness and in .June, 1898, he was admitted to
the bar of his native state. He has since been
engaged in the general practice of his profes-
sion in St. Francois county and is also kno^^'n
as one of the progressive and public-spirited
citizens of his home town of Bonne Terre.
Here he was one of those primarily concerned
in the organization and incorporation of the
Lead Belt Bank, the establishing of which
met with strenuous local opposition, and he
is now vice-president and attorney of this
bank, which controls a large and substantial
business and had proved a most valuable ad-
.junct to the business interests of this section
of the state. He has also lent his co-opera-
tion in the promotion of other enterprises
and measures which have tended to further
the social and material progress and upbuild-
ing of the town and county, and iu politics,
though never a seeker of official preferment,
he accords a staunch allegiance to the Demo-
cratic party and is a member of its central
committee in St. Francois county. He is
affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the
Modern Woodmen of America, and both he
and his wife hold membership in the Con-
gregational church.
On the 24th of July, 1889, ]\Ir. :\lalugen
was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Per-
kins, their union having been solemnized in
South Dakota. They became the parents of
four children, of whom three are living: Ora
Loraine, Effie Lucretia and Lewis Benton,
Birdie, the third child, died in her eighteenth
year, and the devoted wife and mother was
summoned to eternal rest on the 8th of Aug-
ust, 1903. On the 1st of August, 1906, Mr.
^Malugen contracted a second marriage, by his
imion with iliss Emily K. Johnston, of St.
Louis, and they became the parents of two
children, — ^lary Isabelle and John Henry,
Jr., the latter of whom died in infancy.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .MISSOURI
m
William 'SI. Gates, general raerchant of
Hornersville, who is now considered one of
the most prosperous citizens and able business
men of the town, began his career in South-
east jMissouri about thirty-five years ago with
very little money and only his industry and
integrity as the basis for advancement. He
is one of the honored men who have won suc-
cess from reluctant fortune and have over-
come many obstacles in their paths of prog-
ress.
Born on a farm in North Carolina, June
26, 1852, and losing his parents during his
childhood, so that he has no recollection of
them, he had no opportunities to attend
school, has instructed himself in the essentials
of learning, and was brought up until he was
seventeen years old in the family of a North
Carolina farmer. At that age he began work-
ing on a railroad near home, but after a year,
having heard good reports about Tennessee,
he made the journey alone to Gibson county,
where he worked as a farm hand. He was
in a stave factory in ^Moscow, Kentucky, two
years, biit then returned to Tennessee and
lived on a farm until 1877.
In the meantime he had married, and in
1877 he brought his family in a wagon to
Dunklin county. There was no railroad at
Hornersville, IMalden being the nearest rail-
road point. Having little money, he began
as a renter on a farm, made money and pro-
gressed a little each year, and continued the
life of farming until 1890. He also bought
and sold land to some extent. He began his
career as a merchant at Cotton Plant, where
he started with a five hundred dollar stock,
part of which he bought on credit. During
his four years at that town he did well, and
then moved to Hornersville. A stock com-
pany was formed, of which Mr. Langdon was
manager, and they began business in a little
brick building, in which Mr. Gates held five
hundred dollars worth of the stock. He af-
terward bought out all the other parties,
paying them four thousand dollars, the busi-
ness having been organized on the capital
basis of ten thousand dollars. After purchas-
ing the stock he sold 'Sir. J. W. Block a half
interest. About 1901 he sold his interest to
Mr. Block and he established himself at his
present location on ]\Iain street. He put up a
one-story brick business room, fifty by eighty
feet, and owns the lot, fifty by 140, on which
this building stands. As a general merchant
he commands a trade from all the country
around, and many of his patrons have traded
with him for years, their confidence in his
dealings never having been misplaced. He
also has a two-story brick building across the
street from his general store, where he car-
ries furniture and undertaking goods. He is
the only undertaker in a radius of seven
miles. He owns three other lots on Main
street, and also two lots where his comfortable
residence stands. He is a stockholder and
one of the directors of the Bank of Horners-
\'ille.
Four years before coming to Missouri, in
January, 1873, Mr. Gates was married to
Miss L. A. Short. Four children were born,
but they and their mother are all deceased,
the latter passing away in 1895. In 1897 he
married j\Iiss India Tankesley. Their two
children are : Sadie M., twelve years old, and
Erny Lee, born in 1901. The family are
membei-s of the Baptist church, and fra-
ternally Mr. Gates is a member of the lodges
of the Masons and Odd Fellows at Horners-
ville.
Captain AYilliam H. Higdon. Whether as
a soldier following the starry ensign of the
Union and serving as a captain in her army,
as a public man devoted to the best interests
of the community, as a farmer using the most
progressive methods, industriously making
mature render her most bountiful yields, or
as a private citizen and loyal friend. Captain
William H. Higdon has ever shown himself
worthy of the high place he holds in the af-
fection and esteem of Madison county. Gap-
tain Higdon was born near Fredericktown,
Missouri, January 28, 1839, the son of Sam-
uel and Ala (White) Higdon. His father
was a native of Tennessee, the Higdons be-
ing one of the old and best known families of
eastern Tennessee (Marion county), where
they settled some time after their coming to
this country from England. He died in 1852
while yet a young man of thirty-five years.
His wife. Ala White Higdon. was a native of
the state of Georgia, a daughter of William
and Sarah (Baker) White, who moved to the
state of ilissouri when their daughter was a
young girl. The Whites, like the Higdons,
were members of the ^Methodist Episcopal
church, and she met and married ilr. Higdon
in iladison county. She passed away at the
age of thirty-two years, one week after the
death of her husband.
William Higdon was one in a family of
seven, two of whom died in infancy. The
three who are living are as follows: Nancy
774
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
J., now ;\Irs. "WTiitworth, of Madison county ;
James T., who served over three years in the
Third ^Missouri Cavalry of the Federal army,
makes his home near his brother William,
and still farms.
Captain Higdon has spent his entire life
in southeastern ^Missouri, with the exception
of his term in the Federal army and seven
years spent in California and the territories
before his enlistment. He was in California
in 1861. when the war cloud that had lowered
so long finally broke on a divided nation. He
enlisted as a private in Company A, Fifth
California Infantry, and was subsequently
promoted to the second and then the first
lieutenancy of that company. He was later
transferred to Company E, First Volunteer
Infantry, as its first lieutenant. He acted as
captain in several of the company's engage-
ments and served as adjutant at various times
in many of the posts of the west and as
commissary and post-adjutant. He received
his honorable discharge February 6, 1866, at
Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande river, having
served for four years, four months and twen-
ty-foiir days.
At the end of his army service Captain
Higdon returned to Madison county, and has
since spent his efforts as a farmer, being at
one time interested in the lumbering busi-
ness. The Captain is and has always been
an ardent Republican and has more than
once served the interests of the "Grand Old
Party." As a popular and efficient man with
the interests of communitj' sincerely at heart,
he has been elected to several public offices
and has made an enviable record in each ca-
pacity. He has been assessor, sheriff and col-
lector and an unsuccessful candidate for rep-
resentive. and this as a Republican in a
strongly Democratic section.
Captain Higdon was united in marriage,
on February 27, 1867, to Miss Xancy A.
Combs, also a native of Madison county,
born here June 1, 1839. She was the daugh-
ter of Silas and Elizabeth (Whitworth)
Combs, well known settlers in southeastern
Missouri. Mr. Combs was from the state of
Kentucky', while his wife spent her early life
in Georgia. Captain and :\Irs. Higdon have
been blessed with five children, one of whom,
IMary Octa, died at the age of twenty years,
November 8, 1894. Their son Edward Everett
Higdon is a practicing physician in Allen-
villc. Cape Girardeau county, ^lissouri, where
he settled after his graduation from Barnes
Universitv. He and his wife, who was former-
ly Miss Whitworth, have one child, a son
Floyd, aged four years. Dr. William H. Hig-
don, of Prairie View, Arkansas, is a graduate
of the Gate City Medical College at Dallas,
Texas. Lona B. Higdon is now the wife of Dr.
J. K. Smith, of Columbus, Johnson county,
ilissouri. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have two little
daughters. Opal and Pearl. Charles H. Hig-
don is the owner of a prosperous farm located
near the home of his father. He and his
wife, formerly !Miss Dodsou, have three chil-
dren, Harold, William Bailey and Glida.
Captain and Mrs. Higdon are members of
the Christian denomination and attend the
church of that faith at Higdon. Fraternally
Captain Higdon is a member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and he be-
longs to the post of G. A. R. at Frederick-
town. Captain Higdon now makes his home
on his splendid two hundred acre farm, lo-
cated east of Fredericktown, Missouri.
Rupus Cornelius Tucker. One of the
able and distinguished members of the bar
of St. Francois county is Rufus Cornelius
Tucker, former prosecuting attorney and a
man active and influential in public and po-
litical life. Although his career as an at-
torney has been of comparatively brief dura-
tion he has long ago won i-ecognition as the
possessor of an exceedingly fine legal mind,
as a lawyer who reasons instead of jumping
to conclusions and who always goes to trial
with his ciises well prepared, fortified by both
law and evidence.
Rufus Cornelius Tucker was born in Will-
iamson county, Tennessee, July 23, 1855.
His father, William Alexander Tucker, was
born in the same district about the year 1833.
The early life of the elder man was spent on
a farm and he received a common-school edu-
cation. At the time of the outbreak of the
Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate
army and for about three years was a mem-
ber of the forces of General Forrest. Upon
the return of peace he resumed his agricul-
tural operations and he resided upon his farm
until about five years previous to his demise
in 1893. About the year 1888 he made a
radical change by removing to Nashville. Ten-
nessee, and assuming the position of manager
of a lumber .vard. He was married at the
age of eighteen to Susan Catherine Chrich-
low, of Williamson county, Tennessee, she
being a daughter of William and Adeline
Chrichlow, farmers. To this union ten chil-
dren were liorn, the subject being the third
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST iHSSOURI
775
in order of birth. William A. Tucker was
stanehly aligned with the supporters of the
Democratic party and in his church affiliation
belonged to the Southern Methodist Episco-
pal church.
Rufus C. Tucker passed his youth upon
the parental homestead in Tennessee and
gained his preliminary education in the com-
mon schools. At the age of twenty-two years
he assumed the responsibilities of married
life. Miss Sallie E. Ledbetter, of Williamson
county, daughter of Reuben and Nancy Led-
better, becoming his wife. Mr. Ledbetter is
a farmer and a citizen well and favorably
known in his locality-. The union of Mr.
Tucker and his wife has been fruitful of the
following eleven children : Julia Vaughn, de-
ceased ; a child who died in infancy ; Preston
G. Tucker, chief clerk in the train master's
department of the Slississippi River & Bonne
Terre Railway; Nannie, now Mrs. James
Eaton, a primary teacher in the public
schools of Bonne Terre ; Beauford A., stenog-
rapher to the auditor of the Mississippi River
& Bonne Terre Railway; Susie, a music
teacher in the Leadwood public schools; the
Rev. Frank C; Shelby L.; Clarence G. T.;
William R. T.; and Sarah Helen.
For some years after their marriage Mr.
and ^Ii-s. Tucker resided upon their farm in
Davidson county, Tennessee, but in 1881.
(February 9) they decided upon a change of
residence and removal to Delassus, St. Fran-
cois county, Missouri. For some five years
the head of the house conducted farming op-
erations and also engaged in teaming, Irat in
1886 he took charge of a mill in Farmington
and engaged in its operation for two years.
He speedily won the regard and confidence
of his neighbors and came to take an active
interest in public afi'airs. In 1888 he was ap-
pointed deputy sherifi' of St. Francois county
and served in that office for two years. He
was subsequently elected justice of the peace
of St. Francois township and held this office
b.y successive elections for no less than twelve
years, the length of time he held the position
alone being sufficient to show how well he
performed its duties and being eloquent of
his worth and capacity. It was his distinc-
tion to be elected the first police judge of the
city of Farmington in 1896, and he continued
to hold the office until 1902. During the time
he acted as justice of the peace he engaged
in the reading of law and was admitted to the
bar in 1897, by Judge J. D. Fox. Since that
time he has been continually in practice and
has met with much success personally, while
at the same time contributing to the prestige
enjoyed by the bar of St. Francois county.
In 1906 he was elected prosecuting attorney
of St. Francois county, which office he held
two years.
ilr. Tucker is not the only prominent mem-
ber of his family, his brother, Hugh Clarence
Tucker, being a missionary to Brazil and also
having charge of the American Bible Society
in that county. In political faith Mr. Tucker
is a Democrat, giving valiant support to the
policies and principles for which the party
is sponsor. He belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal church, South, and exemplifies in
himself those principles of moral and social
justice and bi-otherh' love represented by
the Masonic order. He is also a member of
the iloderu Woodmen of America.
GusTAV C. Rau is the proprietor of the Pa-
cific Bottling Works, one of the important
industrial enterprises that contribute materi-
ally to the commercial prestige of the place.
He is a native son of Pacific, his birth having
occurred here April 8, 1875. He is a son of
Nicholas Rau, a retired stone mason of Pa-
cific, who is a native of Germany. He was a
youth in his 'teens when he left the Father-
land and his presence in Pacific dates from
a few years previous to the Civil war. He
married Catherine Blaich, a lady of his own
nationality, and their children are as follows :
Mrs. F. J. Petei-son, of Pacific; Miss Kate,
who resides at the parental home ; Gustav C,
the immediate subject of this review; Adam
F., of Washington, Missouri ; William H., of
Washington; George J., Mrs. Edith Mayle
and Carl, residents of Pacific.
As is his right, Mr. Rau shares in those
excellent characteristics which make the
Teutonic dwellers in our country among our
most admirable citizens. Germany has given
the United States men of sturdy integrity,
indomitable perseverance, high intelligence
and much business sagacity, the result being
the incorporation of a firm and strength-giv-
ing fiber. AAHiile passing the days of boy-
hood and young manhood. Gustav C. Rau
engaged in various activities, while at the
same time acquiring his education. He
passed through the schools of Pacific and at
the age of seventeen years he entered as a
full-fledged wage-earner the bottling works
of Louis Mauthe. He mastered the business
in all its details and conseauontly, at the
death of the proprietor. Mr. Mauthe, he was
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .^IISSOURI
in a position to assume charge of the factory,
which he has since operated with the most
excelleut result. He purchased the plant
which was erected by the Mauthe Brothers
in 1881 and he gives his energies to its op-
eration. The annual output of the coucern is
two hundred and eighty thousand bottles per
year, and it is not to be gainsaid that it is
one of the signiticant enterprises of Pacific.
Mr. Ran is one of the stockholdei-s of the
Bank of Pacific, a sound and popular mone-
tary institution, and he is also a property
owner. His loyalty and enthusiasm for a
progressive town is shown in his active serv-
ices as a member of the committee appointed
to consider the question of a water works
plant and the best means of acquiring this
civic benefit, despite the opposing elements
which are evei- present to retard and delay
any public improvement, no matter how nec-
essary. He is a Republican in politics and
takes" in all public matters the interest of the
intelligent voter, although by no means an
office seeker.
Mr. Rau was married in Pacific, Missouri,
in November, 1896, the young woman to be-
come his wife and the mistress of his house-
hold being Miss Clara ]\Iauthe, a daughter of
William Mauthe, who came here as a settler
from his native Germany and here passed the
residue of his life. They have no children.
Mr. Rau is a popular and enthusiastic
lodge man. He stands high in Masonry, be-
ing a Master Mason, and also in the ranks
of the Knights of Pythias, of the local lodge
of which he is a past chancellor and he has
been a member of the Grand Lodge of the
state.
Daniel Hawn. In 1818 Mr. Hawn's par-
ents came to ^Missouri from North Carolina
and took up government land in Cape Girar-
deau countv. It was here that Daniel Hawn
was born in 1829 and he lived on the farm
until he was twenty-one. At that age he
learned the blacksmith's trade and he worked
at it for forty-six years, both in peace and m
war. In 1852 he came to Bollinger county
and plied his trade here until 1896, when he
retired to a farm of one hundred and fifty-
seven acres which he had acquired by inher-
itance nearly forty years before. This place
is situated three miles east of ]\Iarquand and
■was a part of his father's estate.
Mr. Hawn was married in 1851. to IMelvina
Smith, the dausrhter nf William Smith. They
have four children living : Hannah C born
in 1854, became the wife of Edward Brinley.
The second daughter, Emma Ellen, two
j-ears j'ounger, married Henry Slinkard.
Malice, born in 1858, is now Mrs. William
Denman. The son, William Hawn, is the old-
est of the family and was boi'n in 1852.
During the Civil war Jlr. Hawn went into
the Confederate army and spent nine mouths
of the year 1865 in Slayback's regiment. He
did not see any active service, but he did
blacksmithing for the regiment. Like most
of the veterans of the Confederate army, Mr.
Hawn is a Democrat in political convictions.
He has served his party in the offices of con-
stable and deputy sheriff. He filled the for-
mer position at ilarble Hill, for Lorance
township in 1857 and 1858. His two years
as deputy sheriff were spent in Bollinger
county.
Mr. Hawn has now retired from his black-
smith business and is living on his farm,
where he bids fair to round out his four-score-
and-ten years of busy and beneficent exist-
ence.
Reynolds M. Finney. One of the best
cultured men in Dunklin county is R. M.
Finney, who owns one of the best cultivated
farms in the county. He educated himself
from his boyhood and has never ceased to be
a student. We used to feel a certain amount
of pity for the bo.v who had to work his own
way through school, but that after all is the
best kind of education. If Mr. Finney had
not been obliged to pay so dearly for his edu-
cation he would not have appreciated it as
much as he does to-day. nor would he have
been the man that he is to-day.
Reynolds M. Finney was born in Johnson
county, Illinois, in December, 1852. His
father was a farmer and died when R. M. was
ten years old. When the latter was just sev-
enteen years old his mother married again
and he felt it incumbent on him to look out
for himself. He had attended the public
schools of his district, but he was very desir-
ous of obtaining more education. He had
no money to pay his expenses while he went
to school, but that did not daunt him. He
rented a piece of land and, having learned a
great deal about farming from his childhood,
he raised a good crop, which he sold. Tlie
next year he did the same thing and the pro-
ceeds of the two years' work lasted him
through a two and a half years' literary
course at Ewing College. Franklin county,
Illinois. At the end of that time liis money
L.<l--'tJL^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^NHSSOURI
777
was all gone aud he taught for two j-eai-s,
after which he took two years' work at the
State Normal, at the eud of which time he re-
ceived the highest certitieate that was given
by that institution. At that time, in July, 1881,
he came to Dunklin county and taught in the
high school at Kennett. He taught in Dunk-
lin county for several years, but spent his
time in the evenings and far on into the night
reading law. In 1883 he was examined in
open court and was admitted to the bar, with
the right to practice in Missouri in any cir-
cuit court and all courts of record. He had
already practiced a little before he was ad-
mitted to the bar and has practiced in all
about sixteen j'ears, during the last few .years
of that time having more general practice
than he could attend to. From 1885 to 1889
he served as school commissioner and during
these two terms he organized as many school
districts as there were already and under his
regime the first institute meeting that the
county ever held was inaugurated, with the
state superintendent in charge. From 1890 to
1894 he was prosecuting attorney, covering
two terms of service. He was public admin-
istrator for four years, all of these olBces be-
ing secured on "Democratic votes. He was
land commissioner, having been appointed by
the courts to take care of lands. In 1900 he
began to buy the farm which he now owns,
investing in forty acres at a time. All the
land that he bought at first was heavily tim-
bered and he has had it all cleared. In 1906
he moved from town onto his farm, where he
now owns about twelve hundred acres of
land. He also owns another farm of two
hundred and eighty acres just south of his
large farm and he rents the smaller piece of
land to a tenant. He has put up about twenty
houses for his tenants and has very produc-
tive land. He raises wheat, cotton, corn,
peas, mules, horses, hogs. etc. He is making a
specialty of white-face cattle, registered, and
is the pioneer in this industry. He buys and
ships cattle and hogs, besides shipping each
year about three carloads of hogs and three
carloads of cattle of his own raising. These
he sells to the National Stock Yards. East St.
Louis. Mr. Finney probably cultivates more
land than any other man in Dunklin county.
In 1906 he built a fine residence for himself,
in addition to whch he owns several lots in
town. He has helped to promote the Farm-
ers' Gin and .the Kennett Warehouse Com-
pany, being secretary and treasurer of the
latter. He was for a time president of the
Farmers' Gin, but he resigned, still retaining
his directorship.
On September 17, 1886, he married Miss
Maggie Fletcher, near Kennett. She was a
native of Tennessee, but had lived in Missouri
for many years. Three children were born
to the union, all of whom are at home, as fol-
lows : Nola N., Pauline M. and Reynolds
M., Jr. Mr. Finney is a member of the Blue
Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons,
and belongs to the Chapter in Kennett,
Royal Arch IMasons, and to the Commandery
of Maiden.
It is difiicult to say what Mr. Finney's ca-
reer might have been if he had not been de-
termined to get an education. He is so con-
stituted that he must needs have been useful
under any circumstances, but he would not
have been able to do just the things that he
has done for the good of the county and for
the good of his fellow men. As teacher, law-
j-er and farmer he has been alike successful.
C. C. MiTCHiM, the able and experienced
editor of the DeSoto Press, has given his
entire life to the newspaper business, and
though he is just in his prime, his editorial
training and experience have been varied and
extensive.
Mr. Mitchim was born during the Civil
war, November 21, 1863. His father, Lawson
S. Mitchim, was in the Federal army, serv-
ing as first lieutenant in an Arkansas regi-
ment, to which state he had come from North
Carolina when but nineteen years old. The
mother of the present editor was Catherine
Fronabarger Mitchim, of Atkins, Arkansas.
The wedding of ilr. and Mrs. Lawson ilit-
chim took place in 1858, and six children were
born to the couple. The three sons, W. S.,
C. C. and J. F. Mitchim, are still living, also
one daughter, Ollie, Mrs. S. S. Hancock.
Connie and BjTne, twins, are deceased.
At the close of the war, Lieutenant Mit-
chim moved to Mt. Vernon, Illinois, where he
remained two jears, and then moved to Jack-
son, Missouri. Here he conducted a livery
stable. In 1878 he moved to Doniphan, Mis-
souri, and took up farming, and it was there
that he died in 1879. His wife survived him
ten years, passing away in 1889. Lieutenant
Jlitchim was a highly public-spirited man and
contributed much to the upbuilding of Jack-
son. Several residences in that city were
built by him while he was conducting his liv-
ery stable and buying horses and mules. In
politics he was a Democrat; his church was
778
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
the Methodist, South, and he belonged to the
ilasonic order.
C. C. Mitchim, the owner and editor of the
Democratic organ of DeSoto, received liis
education in the schools of Jackson, grad-
uating from the high school in that city. He
was with his parents at Doniphan and a few
years after his father's death, went into the
newspaper business on the Sikeston Star at
Sikeston, Missouri. Seeking wider fields of
experience, he spent a time in Cape Gir-
ardeau, where he was connected with the Neiv
Era for a while and later with the Potosi
Eagle.
With this preliminary training, Mr. Mit-
chim next entered into the journalistic realm
as a proprietor when, in 1891, he bought the
Williamsville Transcript. After conducting
this paper four years, he sold it and bought
the Willow Springs Index, which he pub-
lished for twelve years. Upon disposing of
the Index, Mr. Mitchim bought the Wayne
County Journal, of Greenville, Missouri, and
the Piedmont Banner, and for the next three
years he successfully conducted both jour-
nals. In 1904 DeSoto was fortunate enough
to add ilr. Mitchim to her citizens, when he
bought the DeSoto Press, of which he is still
owner and publisher. The Press enjoys a
large circulation and owns its own building
through its editor, who is likewise the pos-
sessor of a residence property in DeSoto.
Mr. Mitchim has been twice married, in
1901, to Miss Urannah Talley, at Williams-
ville, the bride being a native of Marble Hill.
The second marriage was solemnized at Iver-
ness, ]Mississippi, where Miss Lillian Ward
became Mrs. C. C. Mitchim on February 17,
1909. Two children of the former marriage,
Nellie and Alma, are still living. One died
in infancy. A son, Charles Francis Mitchim,
has been born to Lillian and Charles C. Mit-
chim.
As Mr. Mitchim is a newspaper man
through and through, he is a member of the
Missouri Press Association, in addition to
which he holds membership in the .Modern
Woodmen, the Knights of Pythias and in the
Elks. As has been implied, Mr. Mitchim is a
Democrat, and both personally and as an
editor is influential in the party.
Lawrence L. Feltz, M. D. A physician
and surgeon who has gained distinctive pres-
tige in the work of his profession at Perry-
ville, Missouri, where he has resided during
the major portion of his active career thus
far, is Dr. Lawrence L. Feltz, whose name
forms the caption for this article. Dr. Feltz
was born in this citj' on the 15th of August,
1877, and he is a son of Florence and Mary
(Jeuin) Feltz. The father was born in the
city of Strassburg, in Alsace-Lorraine, when
that province was French territory, Strass-
burg having been consigned to Germany in
1871. As a young man he immigrated to the
United States and he proceeded immediately
to Missouri, locating in Perry county, where
he was engaged in the cooperage trade up to
the age of forty-five years. In his fortieth
year he went to Keokiik, Iowa, where he at-
tended the Eclectic Medical College, in which
excellent institution he was graduated in
June, 1876. He engaged in the active prac-
tice of his profession at Perryville in 1876
and continued to devote his energies to an
extensive and lucrative patronage during the
long intervening years until his demise, which
occurred in the year 1907, at the venerable
age of seventy-five years.
Dr. Feltz, the immediate subject of this
review, received his rudimentary educational
training in the public schools of Perryville
and for one year he was a student in St. Vin-
cent's College, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
In 1899 he was matriculated in the University
of Missouri, at Columbia, and subsequently
he pursued a three-year course in the Hering
Medical College & Hospital, in which he
was graduated as a member of the class of
1903, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of
Medicine. He later took an optical course,
graduating from the National Optical Col-
lege, St. Louis, Missouri, in July, 1910. He
initiated the work of his profession at Perry-
ville, where he has succeeded in building up
a large and representative practice and where
he is accorded recognition for his innate skill
and acquired abilit.y along the line of one of
the most helpful professions to which man
may devote his energies. In a fraternal way
he is afSliated with the Western Catholic
Union and with the Knights of Columbus,
for the local lodges of which he is medical ex-
aminer. In his political proclivities he is a
stanch advocate of the principles and policies
for which the Democratic party stands spon-
sor and while he has neither time nor am-
bition for public office of any description he
is ever on the qui vive to forward the best in-
terests of the community in which he resides
and of the county at large. In his religious
faith Dr. Feltz is a devout communicant of
the Catholic church, in the different depart-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI
meuts of whose work he is an active and
zealous factor.
Oda Lavinia Seabaugh, M. D., although a
young physician, has attained considerable
distinction in Patton. There is perhaps no
calling in life the success of which depends
so much on a man's personality, as well as
his abilities and efforts, as that of a physician,
and in both classes of these Ciualifications Dr.
Seabaugh has been thoroughly tested and
fully proven.
Born on a farm near the town in which he
now resides, Dr. Seabaugh began life Janu-
ary 9, 1885. He is a son of Christian and
Sarah E. (Masters) Seabaugh, both of whom
reside on their farm near Patton. The
father, born on the 1st day of March, 1850. is
a native of Bollinger county, as was Dr.
Seabaugh 's grandfather. Greatgrandfather
Chri.stian Seabaugh began life in North Car-
olina and when a young man came to Mis-
souri, where he was one of the pioneer set-
tlers. He located on a Spanish grant of land
situated about six miles east of Father Sea-
baugh 's home today. Christian Seabanerh
(III) is the third of a family of eight chil-
dren, three of whom are now living: F. M.,
Amos and Christian Seabaugh. Christian
was educated in the country schools and at
the age of nineteen he settled on a farm of
one hundred and twenty acres — his home ixn-
til 1890. He then bought and traded his
farm, which had accumulated until it meas-
ured about three hundred acres, and secured
eleven hundred acres of improved land on
Little Whitewater creek, four miles southeast
of Patton. He has divided his land between
two of his children, retaining eight hundred
acres of his property for himself and others
of the family; four hundred acres of this are
cleared and in cultivation; he possesses
twenty head of horses, thirty cattle, forty
hogs and thirtv head of sheer). He may
iustly feel satisfied with his achievements, as
he has earned all he possesses, and not only
has he acquired a competency for himself and
his family, but he has been able to give his
children excellent educational advantasres. In
1869, the j'ear that he commenced farming
on his own responsibilities, he was united in
marriage to iliss Sarah Masters, daughter of
Christopher Masters, a well-kno\vn and hon-
ored resident of Bollinger county. Mr. and
ilrs. Seabaugh became the parents of ten
children, eight of whom are living — Priscilla,
born June 12, 1873, is the wife of C. F. Bol-
linger, of Patton, mentioned elsewhere in this
work ; Wilbur E., a farmer, whose birth oc-
curred June 22, 1875, married Maggie Shell,
who died, leaving one child, also deceased.
His second marriage was to Miss Jennie
Shell and they have had six children, four
living — Paul D., Opal. Edna and Wilbur J.,
the two deceased being Roy and Terrey ;
Christian C, married July 3, 1911, Miss
Texa Yount ; he is also a farmer, and the date
of his nativity was January 12, 1879. Dr.
Dayton, who began life August 22, 1882, is
now practicing at iMillersville, Missouri. He
married iliss Lillie Limbaugh, and they
have one son, Rusby. Oda Lavinia, born on
the 9tli day of January, 1885, is the physi-
cian whose name initiates this sketch. Miss
EiBe made her first appearance into the
world March 13. 1887. Autie, the date of
whose birth was July 19, 1889, married Flos-
sie Limbaugh. Lo.v Arnold's birth occurred
on the 13th of October, 1891. Father and
Jlother Seabaugh live a quiet, contented life,
holding membership in the Methodist Episco-
pal church, where they are highly esteemed.
Dr. Seabaugh was brought up on his fath-
er's farm, receiving his preliminary educa-
tional training in the Bollinger public school.
In 1901 he entered the Sedgwickville Acad-
emy, completed a two years' course there and
in 1903 entered the State Normal College at
Cape Girardeau, where he remained one
school .year. In 1904. having determined to
make the study and practice of medicine his
life work, he entered the Barnes Medical Col-
lege, at St. Louis, where his entire four years'
coiirse was characterized by the thoroughness
with which he ma.stered the different branches
of the immense field he was entering, his per-
centage in all his studies for the complete
course being over ninety-five per cent. Fol-
lowing his graduation with honors in 1908 he
served from May to September of that year
as interne in the Centenary Hospital. Thus
fully equipped, he returned to his native
place and commenced the practice of medi-
cine at Patton, as the successor to Dr. P. G.
Murray. Dr. Seabaugh 's residence and his
office are both in Patton and during his three
years of professional life he has built up an
extensive practice in the communit.y where he
passed his boyhood. Dr. Seabaugh estab-
lished his drug store at Patton in August,
1908, and conducts distinctly a complete
pharmacy.
On the loth day of September. 1910. the
Doctor was married to Miss Anna Siiiith,
(80
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
daughter of Johusou Smith, formerly a
merchant and now a farmer near I'attou,
Missouri. In fraternal connection Dr. Sea-
baugh is afliliated with the Modern Brother-
hood and with the Modern Woodmen of
America; in a religious way he has adhered
to the faith in which he was trained and
holds membership in the Methodist Episco-
pal church, South; while his political sympa-
thies are with the Democratic party. In re-
lation to his profession he is a member of the
American Medical Association, thus keeping
><breast of the times by the interchange of ex-
periences which is afforded through this so-
ciety. His private reading of medical litera-
ture is an outcome of his earnest desire to
learn of every new discovery, that he may be
more fully qualified to aid suffering human-
ity.
Reuben Appleberry, M. D. Associated in
active general practice with his younger
brother, Dr. Daly Appleberry, at Leadwood,
St. Francois county, the subject of this re-
view merits consideration in this work as one
of the representative physicians and .surgeons
of Southeastern Missouri, as does he also by
reason of being a member of one of the old
and well known families of this section of the
state. The Doctor was born at Valley Mines,
Jefferson county, Missouri, on the 20th of
September, 1880, and is the elder of the two
children of James and Fanny (Matthews)
Appleberry, both natives of that same county
and still residents of Valley Mines. The
father was reared on a farm in the vicinity of
Valley Mines and at the age of sixteen years
he began work under the direction of his
father, John P. Appleberry, who was super-
intendent of the mines and one of the pioneers
in connection with this industry in that sec-
tion. In 1878 James Appleberry was made
general superintendent of the Valley Mines,
of which responsible office he has continued
incumbent during the long intervening years,
which have been marked by earnest and faith-
ful application on his part. He is a man of
sterling integrity of character and commands
the high regard of all who know him. His
political support is given to the cause of the
Democratic party, he is afSliated with the
Masonic fraternity and is a most zealous
member of the Baptist church, in which he
has served to a considerable extent as a local
preacher, ever striving to aid and uplift his
fellow men. His marriage to Miss Fannie
]\latthews was solemnized in 1879, and of
their two children this sketch gives adequate
record.
Dr. Reuben Appleberry gained his early
experiences in connection with the work of the
home farm of his father, near Valley ilines,
and in that village he duly availed himself
of the advantages of the public schools, after
which he continued his studies for two years
in the Farmingtou Baptist College at Farm-
ington, the judicial center of St. Francois
county. He was then matriculated in Barnes
Medical College, in the city of St. Louis, in
which excellent institution he completed the
prescribed course and was graduated as a
member of the class of 1903, with the degree
of Doctor of Medicine. He has since been en-
gaged in general practice at Leadwood, where
his brother has been associated with him since
1906, and they control a large and represen-
tative professional business, owing alike to
their ability as physicians and surgeons and
their sterling attributes of character, which
have gained to them inviolable confidence and
esteem in the community. They are local
surgeons for the St. Joe Lead, Doe Run Lead
and Desloge Consolidated Lead mines and
also for the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre
Railroad, besides which both hold member-
ship in the St. Francois County Medical So-
ciety, the Southeastern Missouri Medical So-
ciety, and the Missouri State Medical Soci-
ety. Both are enthusistic motorists and their
automobiles afford them both pleasure and
a means for rapid response to professional
calls. He whose name initiates this review is
a stalwart in the local camp of the Demo-
cratic party but his profession is of para-
mount importance and he has had no desire to
enter the arena of practical politics. He is
affiliated with the lodge and chapter of the
Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias,
and both he and his wife hold membership in
the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
In 1901 Dr. Reuben Appleberry was united
in marriage to Miss Hattie Wilkinson, of
Bonne Terre. who was summoned to the life
eternal in 1904 and who is survived by two
children, — Hattie May and Charles Homer.
In 1906 he wedded Miss Minnie McDaniel, of
Farmington, who presides most graciously
over their pleasant home. No children have
been born of the second marriage.
Dr. Daly Appleberry, who is his brother's
able and valued coadjutor in their profes-
sional work, was born at Valley Mines, Jeffer-
son county, on the 30th of January, 1885, and
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
rsi
after due preliminary diseipliue he entered
Barnes Medical College, in which he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1906,
duly receiving hs well earned degree of Doc-
tor of Medicine and forthwith forming a
professional partnership with his brother,
with whom he has since been associated. He
is married, is a Democrat in his political al-
legiance, and is affiliated with the ilasonic
and social organizations.
B. P. HiGHFiLL. In Dunklin county one of
the names most prominently associated with
the commercial enterprise of this vicinity is
that of Highfill. I\Ir. B. P. HighfiU is mana-
ger of the Hornersville Mercantile Company,
one of a chain of stores now numbering seven
situated in various towns of this section, and
doing an immense aggregate of annual busi-
ness. The enterprise was originally started
by Mr. HighfUl's brother, H. Highfill, now of
Paragould, Arkansas. The success of these
two brothers is pointed to as one of the best
examples of business achievement in this dis-
trict.
B. P. Highfill was born in Paragould,
Arkansas, August 18, 18S3, and was left an
orphan when a child. He was educated in
Paragould and attended a private school
three years, thus acquiring a little more than
a high school education. He began his busi-
ness experience under his brother and con-
tinued for five years, and then took the man-
agement of the Hornersville branch store,
where he has built up a splendid trade. He
is a progressive young business man and has
a large sphere of activity before him. Pra-
ternally he is a member of the Elks lodge at
Paragould and the Knights of Pythias at
Cardwell.
Andrew P. Ruth holds an enviable repu-
tation as a soldier, as the first Republican in
later years to hold office in the county, and
as an enterprising and progressive citizen
who has ever proved himself a kind neighbor
and a loyal friend. He is now living, a re-
tired farmer and stockman, on his fine farm
three miles south of Predericktown. His fine
farm contains four hundred and forty acres,
two hundred and ten of which are at present
under cultivation.
Mr. Ruth was born October 23, 1841, in
Kessel, Germany, located about seven hours
ride from Hanover, and many of his sterling
qualities can be traced to the fine German
stock from which he sprang. He is the son
of Jacob and Dorothy (Werner) Ruth, who
immigrated to this country in 1847, coming
directly to Mine La Motte. Here the father,
who was a stone-cutter, followed his trade
and made his home for the rest of his life,
passing in 1853, in the very prime of his life.
Andrew P. was thus left an orphan, for his
mother had died in the preceding year, 1852.
Besides Andrew, two other children were
left. Henry now lives in California, whither
he went some fifteen years ago, and a sister,
now Mrs. Margaret Halter, is residing in St.
Praneois county, Missouri. Andrew P., left
as he was, was obliged to get most of his edu-
cation in night school, and his success at edu-
cating himself against such odds go to show
the timbre of the man. When he was thirteen
years old, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith
at Mine La Motte, and was put to work in the
mines. After fourteen months his administra-
tor, not satisfied at the treatment he was re-
ceiving from the blacksmith, gave him his
time, when the boy was only fourteen years
of age. He then followed mining until his
enlistment, in June, 1861, in the Union army.
He joined Buell's battery and with them was
consolidated with the First Missouri Artil-
lery and became a member of company I of
that regiment. In the fall of 1863 Mr. Ruth
veteranized and went into company H, of
the Pirst IMissouri Artillery, as a non-com-
missioned officer, and remained until the close
of the great struggle. He was with Sherman
on that memorable march to the sea, and after
the Grand Review was mustered out of his
country's service at Washington, D. C. He
had served four years exactly, having en-
listed on June 16, 1861, and was mustered
out June 16, 1865. His discharge, which
stands as a noble record of his service, was
signed with especial recommendation by Cap-
tain C. il. Callahan of Battery H., First :\lis-
souri Light Artillery, and by W. D. Hub-
bard, captain of the Thirteenth Missouri
Cavalry Volunteers. Among the many en-
gagements in which he was an active partici-
pant were the battles of Snake Creek Gap,
Lloyd Perry, Rome Cross Roads, Dallas, Old
Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Jonesboro, Fort
]\IcAllister, Savannah, Columbia, Will Creek
and the siege of Atlanta.
After the war was over he returned to
Mine La Motte, and stayed until 1869, when
he removed to Predericktown and engaged
in the liquor business for about six months.
Then he went to Colorado, mined for another
six months, and then returned to Frederick-
782
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
town and continued in the liquor
for over ten j'ears. In 1888 he bought his
present farm and for the past twenty years
has made his home on the same. He has fol-
low'ed general farming, and made many im-
provements on his land.
In 1867 was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Ruth to Jliss Lucetta Hellaker, also a
native of the Fatherland, coming with her
family to Mine La Motte when she was a child
of six. Mr. and Mrs. Ruth have been blessed
wuth eight children, seven of whom survive
to this date, 1911. Elizabeth became Mrs.
Samuel Perringer, and she passed away in
1906, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Josephine
Barrington, the mother of Charles Barring-
ton. Henry Ruth, who married Miss Lessie
Bruce and became the father of six children,
is now a prosperous farmer, and lives not far
from his father's place. Joseph is also en-
gaged in farming, and is not far from his
father, being located on the Greenville Road.
He was united in marriage to Miss Mary
Sunderman. and they have since been blessed
with five children. Mary Ruth became the
wife of Mr. James Thompson and became
the mother of three fine children. She and
her husband have a farm two miles west of
her father's. Frank Ruth, who chose as his
bride Miss Emma Thompson, resides on his
father's farm. He is the father of two chil-
dren: Etta and Annie, the twins and young-
est girls in the family, are still at the par-
ental home, as is also their brother Andrew
Jr.
Politically ]Mr. Ruth has never wavered
from his strong Republican convictions and
he has had the honor to have been the first
Republican for many years in the county to
attain victory at an election. This was in
1896, when he was elected county .iudge. Al-
though a few men of his party have been suc-
cessful at the polls since, none had ever
gained a ma.iority for many years previously
before his election twelve years ago to the
position of county judge in Madison county.
Fraternally Mr. Ruth is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a
member of the chapter at Fredericktown.
He was also a member of the Grand Army of
the Reiiulilie for several years. Mrs. Ruth
and the remainder of the family are members
of the Catholic church.
David Sullens Browne, proprietor of the
Browne Dry Goods Company at Flat River,
is one of the most enterprising merchants
of southeastern Missouri. He has been iden-
tified with this locality for the past fifteen
years, and through his native ability and in-
dustry has won a substantial position.
He was born in Wythe county, Virginia,
October 15, 1874. His father, James E.
Browne, was born in the same state in 1827,
had limited schooling during his youth but
educated himself so that he was prepared to
teach school and also for the ministry of the
Methodist church. Throughout the Civil
war he served as a Virginia soldier, and is
still a resident of that state, occupying a
charge as minister. He married Miss Eliza-
beth Lockett, a daughter of Edwin Loekett,
of Virginia. She is still living, and was the
mother of nine children. In politics the
father was a Democrat.
Mr. D. S. Browne, who was the sixth of
his parents' children, was educated in the
public schools of Virginia, and at the age
of nineteen began earning his own way, for
the first five years being in various lines of
work. He then located at Flat River and
after working awhile in the mines became
an employe of the E. F. Packard Store Com-
pany. His six years' experience there laid
the foundation for his subsequent success,
which resulted in the organization of the
Browne Dry Goods Company. This is one of
the largest exclusive dry goods houses in
southeastern Missouri, and is a monument
to the business management of its owner.
Mr. Browne's politics is Democratic, and
he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church. South and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. He married, in 1904, Miss
Elizabeth Arnoldi, a daughter of C. P.
Arnoldi, who was connected with the mines
at Flat River. One son has been born of
their marriage, James Frederick.
Charles R. Pratt. The man best fitted to
meet the wonderfully changed life of to-day
is not a new type of man. He is a man re-
splendent with the same old sterling quali-
ties — clean in his individual life, great in his
home life, great in his civic and patriotic life
and great in his religious life. He holds true
to his conscience and convictions, unswerved
by praise or blame, and in every possible con-
nection he manifested a deep and helpful in-
terest in community affairs. Such a man is
Charles R. Pratt, whose citizenship is a val-
uable adiunct to Flat River, Saint Francois
county. Missouri. Since the 1st of January,
1911, he has been general manager of the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
783
Lead Belt & Farmington Telephone Com-
pany, and in that capacity has contributed
materially to the growth and increased busi-
ness of that concern.
A native of Macon county, Missouri,
Charles R. Pratt was born on the 18th of
January, 1871. and he is a son of Jesse R.
Pratt, whose birth occurred on the 5th of
January, 1841, in Knox county, Tennessee.
The father passed his boyhood and youth on
a farm and at the outbreak of the Civil war
enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army,
serving during the entire period of the war
as a member of Marmaduke's Brigade. After
the close of the war and when peace had
again been established throughout the coun-
try he settled in Shelby county, ^Missouri,
where he was identified with farming opera-
tions until 1872. In the latter year he estab-
lished the family home in St. Francois coun-
ty, this state, and there he turned his atten-
tion to the manufacture of brick, also build-
ing up a large contracting business. He put
up the majority of the brick buildings now
standing in Farmington, Missoiiri. In 1909
he again directed his attention to agricult-
ural pursuits and he is now engaged in that
line of endeavor in ^Mississippi county, where
he is the owner of a finely improved estate of
two hundred acres of land. In the year 1867
was solemnized the marriage of Jesse R.
Pratt to IMiss Nannie S. Dennis, a native of
Illinois. This union was prolific of seven chil-
dren, four of whom are living at the present
time and of whom the subject of this review
was the second in order of birth. Mrs. Pratt
passed to eternal rest in 1880 and three years
later ]Mr. Pratt wedded Kate Bowyer, of
Farmington. To the latter union have been
born three children. In politics Mr. Pratt is
aligned as a stanch supporter of the Demo-
cratic party and in a fraternal way he is a
valued and appreciative member of the local
lodges of the Ancient Order of United "Work-
men and the Knights of Pythias.
Charles R. Pratt, whose name forms the
caption for this review, received his early
educational training in the public schools of
Farmington, where he also attended the Bap-
tist College, in which excellent institution he
was graduated as a member of the class of
1892. Subsequently he attended the Uni-
versity of Kentucky, where he pursued a com-
mercial course. For a period of four years
]\Ir. Pratt was a popular and successful
teacher in the Baptist College at Farming-
ton, where he served in the capacity of prin-
cipal for one year. For two years he was
principal of the public schools at Doe Run.
In 1898 he became interested in the news-
paper business at Farmington, where he be-
came editor of the Saint Francois Herald, an
incumbency he retained for three years, at the
expiration of which he became associated with
his father in the manufacture of bricks. In
1904 he came to Flat River, where he pur-
chased the Lead Belt News, which he edited
and published up to January 1, 1911. Dis-
posing of that paper to Mr. Smith, the pres-
ent editor, he became general manager of the
Lead Belt & Farmington Telephone Com-
pany, one of the most prosperous business
concerns in this place. Mr. Pratt is an en-
thusiastic politician, giving a hearty and
zealous support to the Democratic party. At
the present time. 1911, he is chairman of
the Saint Francois. County Democratic
Committee and he is likewise chairman of
the Thirteenth Congressional District Demo-
cratic Committee. He is ever on the riui vive
to advance the best interests of the community
in which he maintains his home and a more
loyal or public-spirited citizen cannot be
found in Flat River. In their religious faith
the Pratt family are devout members of the
Missionary Baptist church, in the various de-
partments of whose work they are most zeal-
ous factors.
On the 9th of May, 1895, ilr. Pratt was
united in marriage to Miss Viola "Williams,
whose birth occurred in ]\Iissouri and who is
a daughter of Elias and Mary "Williams. Mr.
and ]\Irs. Pratt are the parents of four chil-
dren, whose names are here entered in re-
spective order of birth. — Georgia F., Glen-
wood. Charles J., Jr.. and Bertrand, all of
whom are attending school at Flat River. Jlr.
and Mrs. Pratt are prominent in connection
with the best social activities of Flat River,
where their attractive home is widely re-
nowned for its refinement and generous hos-
pitality, ilr. Pratt is genial in his associa-
tions, sincere in his friendship and a man of
fairness and honor in all his business deal-
ings. He is atfiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern "Woodmen
of America and the Fraternal Order of
Eagles. For the past five j'cars he has been
a member of the Plat River school board and
since 1908 he has been president of the board.
BuREN Duckworth is one of the retired
merchants of St. Clair, and is engaged ac-
tively and successfully as a lead mine pro-
784
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
moter and is president of tlie Bank of St.
Clair. He is an excellent and substantial
business man, of the enterprising type which
is aiding in the upbuilding of this part of
the state and of whom is especially appi-o-
priate representation in this volume. His
talents are versatile and in no less than three
distinct tields of enterprise has he made his
mark for ability and initiative of a high or-
der. He is loyal to this section with the loj'-
alty of a native son, his birth having occurred
in the vicinity of St. Clair on January 27,
1857. He is a son of Josiah Duckworth, who
came to the county about the year 1836. To
give the life of the latter in epitome, he was
a native Kentuckian, but must have moved
to Virginia, for it was from the Old Domin-
ion that he came to the state of Missouri. He
devoted his life to farming: kept aloof from
active participation in politics ; was not in the
army on either side during the war between
the states ; and he was killed by a falling tree
in September, 1881, when sixty-four years of
age.
Josiah Duckworth married Elizabeth Sto-
vall, who died in St. Clair in 1911, at the age
of .seventy-nine years. Their children were
as follows: Josiah C, of Aurora, Missouri;
Buren and Webster, twin brothers, who re-
side in St. Clair; Thomas P., of St. Clair;
Fannie L.. who married A. H. Short, of
]\Iena, Arkansas; Theodosia, wife of J. P.
Murphv, of St. Clair; Miss Mattie; and Es-
tella. wife of E. W. Walker, of Rolla, Mis-
souri.
Buren Duckworth passed his life upon the
farm until past the age of thirty years and
he has an agricultural training of the most
thorough and scientific sort. His education
was acquired in the country schools. In 1888
he made a radical and what proved a well-
advised change by leaving the country and
investing his small capital in merchandise.
He opened a small store in St. Clair and for
fourteen years conducted this business under
his own name, the entei-prise experiencing a
sound and flourishing growth. At the end of
the period mentioned he merged his stock
with the St. Clair Llercautile Company,
which he had organized. He remained finan-
cially interested in this for the space of eight
years and then abandoned commercial pur-
suits.
For many years Mr. Duckworth has pros-
pected for and developed mining properties.
He opened the Merrimac lead mine and
made it a salable proposition. He next de-
veloped the ■■ Chimney" mine and also found
a buyer for it. His following venture was
the ''Andeson, " which proved so profitable
that he and his associates are still operating
it. The gentlemen who are associated with
him are Gilbert Laj-, Charles Otte and A. C.
Beasley. In Greene county IMr. Duckworth
opened an iron bank, which is a valuable
prospect and has already showed the pres-
ence of iron ore in paying quantities. He
buys and ships barytes and is operating no
less than three properties yielding this com-
mercial stuff. The success of the several ven-
tures with which he has been connected are
largely to be credited to his executive ability,
tireless energj', engineering skill and genius
in the broad combination and concentration
of applicable forces.
In 1904, the St. Clair Bank was organized
by a few citizens of whom Mr. Duckworth
was one and he was chosen president of the
new monetary institution. For some years
he has dealt extensively in railroad ties, ship-
ping yearly some fifty thousand ties cut from
the forests adjacent to the town.
In politics ]\Ir. Duckworth is a Democrat,
supporting with enthusiasm the men and
measures presented bv the party and he has
himself been on the ticket for county ofSee.
In 1906 he made the race for county judge
and was defeated by only fifty-six votes in
a county normallj^ Republican by something
like seventeen hundred votes. He is a man
of pleasing personality and plenty of enthu-
siasm and has many friends.
On January 23, 1884, Mr. Duckworth mar-
ried Miss Nora E. Beasle.v, their union being
celebrated at St. Clair. She is a daughter of
Alfred Beasley, a successful and extensive
farmer of this locality who came here orig-
inallj' from Virginia. The issue of their
marriage is a daughter, Phoebe, wife of C.
H. Sparrow, of Newark, New Jerse.y. Small
Dorothy Sparrow, four years of age, entitles
the subject to the pleasant distinction of
grandfather.
J. A. Berry. Shortly after the close of the
Revolutionary war Hyram Berry was born
in North Carolina and in 1818, at the age of
twenty-three, he came to Bollinger county
with his wife. Amelia, and settled in Glen
Allen, where his descendants have been en-
gaged in farming and mercantile business
ever since. He himself lived until 1889, when
he died at the advanced age of one hundred
and four. His son, William Berry, was the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
785
father of the subject of this sketch, and was
a prosperous nierehaut farmer who speut his
life in the county.
J. A. Berry was born on a farm three miles
north of ^Marble Hill in 1869. Until sixteen
he attended school and worked on the farm
and then went into his father's store at Glen
Allen. Here he has been ever since and is now
the sole owner of the large establishment. He
and his brother came into possession of the
business in 1890 and eleven years later he
bought his brother's interest. While in part-
nership with his brother, J. A. Berry was
postmaster at Glen Allen. In additon to his
mercantile business he owns a farm near
Glen Allen and is president of the People's
Telephone Company at Lutesville.
Mr. Berry's fraternal affiliations include
the venerable Masonic order, the Odd Fel-
lows, the Modern Woodmen and the Macca-
bees lodges. He is a Democrat in politics,
but does not devote himself to politics even
as a side-line of business.
Mrs. Berry is also a native of Missoiiri.
Before her marriage to J. A. Berry in 1902
she was Miss Emma C. McJIinn. Her par-
ents, A. C. and Catherine McMinn, are also
Missourians born. A family of three children
ma.ke up the home circle of Mr. and ilrs.
Berry, two sons and one daughter. They are
William M., Roy A., and Ruth C. Berry, aged
six. four and three, respectively.
Samuel Andy Reppy. Few mortals are
privileged to live lives of such interest, varied
usefulness and distinction as S. A. Reppy,
now an attorney-at-law and real estate dealer
in De Soto. Sir. Reppy is one of eight chil-
dren still surviving of the ten born to Hamil-
ton Smith and Sarah (Dunn) Reppy, pio-
neers of Jefferson county, before there was
any town of De Soto. Of these six were girls,
now all married; Susan, to William Butler;
Jane, to B. F. Butler; Nancy, to John Wil-
cox: Caroline is Mrs. Wash Butler; Eliza-
beth, Jlrs. T. W. Mc:\lunen, and Nora is Jlrs.
J. H. Gardener. The two sons are Samuel
A. and William G. Reppy.
H. S. Reppy, father of this family was a
Democrat in politii's, but he voted for Lin-
coln. He was bora in St. Charles, Septem-
ber 28, 1810. Shortly after his birth his par-
ents moved to Bele Fountain, Washington
county, to engage n mining, but both father
and mother died ■'ery shortly after coming
to the new home aid the boy was brought up
by ;\Ir. Hart, a distiller by trade. The orphan
supported himself by working for different
people and became first owner of a farm and
then the first merchant of De Soto. He died
in this city in 1874 and was buried on his
sixty-fourth birthday.
Samuel A. Reppy, eldest son of H. S., was
born ilay 21, 1837, two miles southwest of
De Soto, and remained on the farm until the
railroad was built in 1857, when he went into
mercantile business. He had a grocery store
in De Soto, but when the gold rush to Colo-
rado swept over the country in 1861, he left
De Soto in an ox-cart and made the journey
across the plains to the iiew El Dorado. His
stay was ended by an accident which crip-
pled him and five months after leaving De
Soto he came back and resumed business in
that place.
Mr. Reppy 's public career began in March,
1862, when he was elected county clerk. He
served afterwards as recorder of deeds and
as superintendent of public instruction in
Jeiferson county, where he was the first Re-
publican to hold office. He remained at
Hillsboro until 1873, when he went to Little
Rock, Arkansas. After a month's residence
in that city he moved to Prescott, in the same
state, and spent fourteen years there as one
of the most prominent citizens of the county.
He was well known in the political circle of
Prescott, where he served both as mayor of
the city and as associate justice of the county
court, and he counted among Ms intimate
friends the Governors Gus and Rufus Gar-
land, and Senator J. K. Jones.
Mr. Reppy returned to Jefferson county in
1889 and bought his old homestead. He spent
several 3'ears on the old place and then came
again to De Soto, where his father was once
the only man in business in the town. Since
his return to De Soto. Mr. Reppy has been
engaged in law and in real estate business.
He has been twice elected city attorney, in
recognition of his unusual ability in the legal
profession, to which he was formally ad-
mitted in 1867.
Seven children of Rachael P. (Whitehead)
and Samuel A. Reppy are still living. These
are John H., Samuel Allison, Robert Edgar,
and Henry T. Reppy; and Mrs. Theo Wal-
ther (Edith Reppy); Rachel E., wife of Dr.
Donnell; and Mrs. Roger Wilcox, nee Mabel
Reppy. The marriage of which these chil-
dren are the issue took place in 1860, on the
twelfth of February. The minister who per-
formed the ceremony was Reverend Samuel
786
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Hoffman, a member of the legislature with
Abraham Lincoln.
Since 1865 Mr. Reppv has held member-
ship in the Masonic lodge and Eastern Star.
He is one of the most devoted workers in the
Methodist church, where he has served as
Sundaj'-school superintendent for over thirty-
five years. ]Mr. Reppy killed his first deer,
turkey and squirrel where the town of De
Soto now stands, and was the first justice of
the peace elected in De Soto, in 1860.
George 0. Hammersley. Not only to those
interested in commercial lines, but also to the
professional man of ability, Dunklin county
offers scope for intelligent effort and pecu-
niary reward for industry and talent. A
signal instance of such a career is that of
George 0. Hanunersley. In 1900, Dr. Ham-
mersley was graduated from the ]\Iemphis
Hospital and ]Medical College and the same
year came to Campbell. He had previously
lived in an Illinois town of a population of
750. In 1889 his marriage to Miss Artie Hill
of Norris City, Illinois, took place. The fam-
ily of the bride is one of the oldest and best
known in that section of the country.
When Dr. Hammersley came to Campbell
he ))egan at once to practice medicine. In
1906, he started a drug store and ran it for
four years, and he built up a thriving trade
in that time but sold it out because his prac-
tice required all his time. Dr. Hammersley.
improves every opportunity to keep abreast
of the progress in medical science. He holds
membership in the County, the State and the
National Medical Associations and in the Tri-
State Association. This includes ^Missouri,
Arkansas and Tennessee. The Doctor spent
two years in Tennessee from 1901 to 1902.
Dr. Hammersley has bought and sold a
great deal of real estate during the time he
has been here and his holdings in that line
are extensive and valuable. He owns one of
the best residences in Campbell, a farm of
eighty acres in Ripley county and one of
twice that extent in Howell county. All this
he has achieved in a little more than a decade
by his own efforts.
Dr. Hammer.slev and his wife are members
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
They have a family of three children all at
home. These are Hallie, Lucy and Flov. The
doctor is one of the popular citizens of Camp-
bell and holds membership in several lodges.
He is an F. and A. M. of Campbell, belonging
to the council at Campbell, chapter, Kennett.
The Odd Fellows and the Knigths of Pythias
also count him in their fraternity and he is
an Elk in the Caruthersville lodge.
Charles E. Porter. Dunklin county is
doubly proud of her self-made men; proud
first of possessing citizens of the calibi-e of
men who can carve fortune from circum-
stances and proud of being a place of oppor-
tunity for ambitious workers. Charles E.
Porter's career is in mauj^ respects a tj'pical
one. His history is that of a prosperous busi-
ness man who began with nothing.
Illinois is the place of Mr. Porter's birth,
the year being 1875. His parents moved to
Kentucky when he was only two years old
and remained in Livingston county, that
state, for ten years. In 1877 the Porter fam-
ily moved to Campbell and settled on a farm.
Here Mr. Porter went to school a little while
and then stayed at home until he went to work
on a farm near town and continued to live in
the country working out and renting until
1901.
In the meantime Mr. Porter had married a
young lady whom he had known as a boy in
Kentucky. This was Miss Rilous Vaughn who
became Mrs. Porter in 1895, on November 22.
Wben they had been married six years, Mr.
Porter moved into Campbell bringing with
him his wife and two children. Owen and
Russell. His first venture was a restaurant
in a small store. Thrift and business sagacity
made the business successful and he has stead-
ily forged ahead in the commercial world and
branched out into other lines of trade. His
mercantile stock gradually increased and fin-
ally he decided to dispose of his restaurant
and devote all his time to the dealing in mer-
chandise. Upon selling out his restaurant,
Mr. Porter consolidated with the McCutchen
^Mercantile Company and was associated with
that organization for seven years. During
that time be was one of the directors of the
stock company.
In 1909, the Porter-Benson Mercantile Com-
pany was organized and Mr. Porter was made
president and general manager of the concern.
The two years of its existence have shown
the wisdom of having so experienced and
gifted a business man at the helm. The stock
has been increased and now the store carries
a line of dry-goods, grocieries, wagons and
carriages. 1
In city real estate, Mr. Porter owns several
business lots and a residence which is one of
the beautiful places of the eity. It is situated
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :MISS0URI
787
ill the midst of a natural forest seven acres
in extent and is spacious and liaudsoine
grounds are no less the pride of the city than
of its owner.
iir. Porter is a Republican in political mat-
ters. He is well known in the lodges of
Campbell where he holds membership in the
Woodmen of the World, the Odd Fellows and
the Knights of Pythias. His church is the
Baptist. Besides his two sons, mentioned
above, Mr. Porter has four daughters, La
Vesta, Ola, ^Marguerite and ]\Iarie. ilr. and
Mrs. Porter have all their children still at
home. Mr. Porter 's mother died when he was
twelve years old, but his father is still living
on his farm near Campbell and has married
a second time.
When it is considered that :Mr. Porter has
built up such a business and acquired his val-
uable property all unaided in about twelve
years the inevitable conclusion is that a good
man has been doing good work in a good
territory.
Robert Henry Jones. In considering the
life of a man, the first thing we inquire is
what he has done, and we judge of a man by
his achievements. We want to know the
mistakes he has made and the experience
he gained from those mistakes. We want
to know the efforts that have been put for-
ward for betterment. We guess the number
of times Opportunity knocked at the door
and we wonder if he opened it or if he was
busily engaged with Neglect. In short we
would know if the man has made a success
or not. In the case of Robert Henry Jones,
late of Kennett, Missouri, the question can
most decidedly be answered in the affirma-
tive, as a short history of his career will very
plainly show.
He was born at Demopolis, Alabama,
November 18, 1859. His father, Benjamin
Jones, was a native of Virginia, where he
was reared and educated. He married Miss
Odenia Ligon, a native of Alabama, who died
about 1864. Her husband was killed soon
after the war, leaving his young children
without parental support.
Robert Henry had no recollection of the
little Southern mother who was taken away
when he was very small and but a hazy
memory of the father who died when he was
so young. He went to the district schools in
Alabama, where he received his early educa-
tion. When he was only thirteen years old
he started with his younger brother, Ligon,
on a long trip from Alabama to Wayne
county, Missouri, walking the entire dis-
tance, at times having to carry his brother
over rough places and through streams. Part
of his journey was through Clarkton, but he
had little idea then that Dunklin county
would ever be his home. He went to Patter-
son, Wayne county, where his aunt, the wife
of Seneca B. Sproule, lived. Mr. Sproule
was publishing a small paper there and the
boy entered the office, learned the trade and
later went with Mr. Sproule to Greenville
and then to Piedmont. Thence he walked
to Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau county, where
the Rev. Nelson B. Plenry was conducting a
seminary or small college. He became a
member of that good man's family, working
his way through school for two terms. He
stayed only for that short period because he
did not find it possible to remain longer,
although even then he realized that he
should have more education if he would
accomplish very much in the w^orld. He
went to Cape Girardeau and worked at the
printing business under A. M. Casebolt, the
eccentric about whom so many stories have
been told. Then he went to Dexter and
worked in a printing office with Charles E.
Stokes. Later he was at Bloomfield for a
while; then he started the Maiden Clipper
newspaper and published it for about six
years. Later he ran the Dexter Messenger.
After this experience in the journalistic field
he engaged in the mercantile business for a
while at JIalden. He was city marshal of
ilalden at a time when great courage was
required. He was absolutely fearless of
physical injury and showed his bravery
while in that office. While a citizen of
Maiden and owner of the Clipper newspaper,
much of the time between 1881 and 1887,
Jlr. Jones was deputy clerk of the circuit
court and deputy recorder of deeds under
the late Judge T. E. Baldwin. It was while
holding this position that he became familiar
with the land matters and records of Dunk-
lin county. Later with T. R. R. Ely and D.
B. Pankey he organized a title and abstract
company, w^hicli has grown into prominent
proportions and the greater share of wiiich
he owned at the time of his death.
On February 16, 1886. Mr. Jones was mar-
ried to IMiss Hettie D. Langdon, daughter of
Judge E. J. Langdon, of Cotton Plant, Dunk-
lin county. Of this union three sons. Lang-
don, Byron and Irl, were born. The two
eldest boys are attending the University at
788
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST jMISSOURI
St. Louis, while Irl has been at home with
his father.
On April 9, 1888, exactly twenty-three
years before his burial, Mr. Jones first came
to Kennett, with Will A. Jones as his printer
and on the 19th of April he put out the first
issue of the Kennett Clipper, the predecessor
of the Dunklin Democrat. Later he took his
brother, Ligon Jones, in as a pai'tner in the
venture and the two ran the paper until
April 27, 1893, when they sold it to the
present owners, who changed the name to
the Dunklin Democrat. Mr. Jones was one
of the organizers of the Dunklin County Fair
Association and was its secretary from its
inception in 1891 to the time of his death.
To him more than to any other man was due
the twenty successful fairs held at Kennett.
0. S. Harrison had been his chief co-worker
in the fair for several years and is its presi-
dent.
A few days ago Mr. Jones became inter-
ested as a stockholder in the little timber
railroad running from Campbell to the Dog
Walk lands of Clay county, Arkansas, north-
west of Kennett. Aside from hauling logs
over a sawdust ballasted track on very small
and crooked rails, its commercial importance
consisted in carrying blackberry picking
parties from Campbell to the luxurious
patches along the St. Francois river. When
Mr. Jones and his associates, business men
of Kennett, became interested in the road
and decided to build it to Kennett on a solid
roadbed with real steel rails, the public be-
came interested. The plan was to extend the
road from the southern terminus across the
river in Arkansas into Kennett, at the same
time pushing branches and spurs into the
wonderful Dog Walk lands of Clay county,
Arkansas, thus affording opportunity for
moving the vast body of timber on that land.
These plans were carried out and with the
extension of the road here the removal of the
Campbell Lumber Company's plant from
Campbell to Kennett was quickly agreed
upon. The growth of that plant from one
mill to three, trebling the capacity of the
plant and the consequent increase of the
working population of Kennett, are matters
of general knowledge in the county. When
the road had reached here and had been
standardized in width, equipped with big
engines and cars and appeared to be a real
railroad, the demand for its extension west
became so pronounced that it was built to
Piggott, due to the efforts of Mr.
What the extension did for Piggott (an im-
portant city on the Cotton Belt and the shire
town of Clay county, Arkansas) is second in
importance only to what it did for Kennett.
If you go into that pretty city over the St.
Loiiis, Kennett & Southeastern Railroad,
the name of the extended line, you will see
the evidence of the prosperity of the city.
]\Ir. Jones had been president of this road
since its extension to Kennett. If he had
lived he would have seen another one of his
great desires accomplished, the extension of
this road west from Piggott to a connection
with the Iron Mountain road and probably
still further west.
Mr. Jones was one of the organizers of the
Bank of Kennett, having been interested in
it as a director for twenty years at the time
of his death. He was also interested as a
stockholder in banks at ]\Ialden, Campbell
and Holcomb. His good judgment on the
value of lands induced him to become the
possessor of several thousand acres in this
and adjoining counties. As partner of
William Hunter, the land king of Southeast-
ern Missouri, of Virgil McKay, of W. F.
Shelton and others, he was possessed of large
interests at various times and had an ex-
tensive landed property at the time of his
death. Mr. Jones, known to his closest
friends as Clipper Jones and to his oldest
friend as Hal Jones, was a good provider
and far-sighted, as is instanced by the fact
that he carried life insurance in favor of his
sons to the amount of thirty thousand dol-
lars.
His death was sudden and unexpected;
only two days before he was attending to his
duties in his office. He had complained of
slight rheumatic pains and intended to go
to Hot Springs as soon as he should have
arranged his business matters. Two days
later he was beyond all connection with busi-
ness and he died with his head on the
shoulder of his youngest son, Irl, the other
sons being away at college. The funeral
was in charge of the Masonic order of which
Mr. Jones was a member. The Kennett
lodge. No. 68, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons, with T. R. R. Ely, Master, (Maiden
Commandery as guard of honor) made every
arrangement. Mr. Jones had been a member
of the Presbyterian church since December 7,
1896, and its pastor, the Rev. C. W. Latham,
conducted the religious services, assisted by
the choir of the church for which he had done
so much. During the last twenty-five years
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI
789
Jlr. Jones did a great deal for the betterment
of Dunklin county ; he made a fortune for his
sons and was a progressive and valuable citi-
zen. He was a man of broadest interests and
was never idle. He was a born leader and only
followed when he felt that some one else
could be a better captain. He was positive
in his opinions and formed conclusions on
every subject, but he was always willing that
othei's should hold their opinions and was
willing to grant them as much liberty of ex-
pression as he took for himself. He was
charitable in speech and act, and his many
acts of private benevolence will long be re-
membered by the recipients of his kindness.
As an instance he eared for a near relative
who had become helpless, sparing neither ex-
pense nor care, his reward being the con-
sciousness that he was easing the burdens of
others. This was the key-note of all his ac-
tions, that of service to his fellow creatures,
and his loss will long be felt in the county.
Upon the occasion of the twenty-first
annual Dunklin county fair, his great friend,
0. S. Harrison, wrote a beautiful apprecia-
tion of him which was incorporated in the
pamphlet containing the premium list. The
article contained a short outline of his life,
the main facts of which have been recorded
in foregoing paragraphs. It can not be amiss
to repeat some of this in Mr. Harrison 's own
words.
"To recount his early experiences and up-
hill fight would occupy too much space, but
from early boyhood he seemed determined
to get as good an education as possible for a
lad in his circumstances, and later we
find him working his way through a small
college at Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau
county, under the tutelage of Rev. Henry.
Prom here he went to Cape Girardeau and
worked at the printing trade. He next ap-
peared at Dexter and for awhile edited the
Dexter Messenger. He then entered the
mercantile business at Maiden and was at
one time the fearless city marshal of the
city, at a time when great courage and
personality were required.
"He later came to Kennett and was for a
time deputy circuit clerk and recorder of
deeds under that grand old man. Judge T.
E. Baldwin. He then, with others, organized
a title and abstract company in this county,
which has since grown into prominent pro-
portions and of which he was half owner and
manager at the time of his death.
"IMr. Jones has since been fovmd promi-
nently associated with all public enterprises,
being one of the organizers of the Bank of
Kennett, the president of the St. Louis, Ken-
nett & Southeastern Railroad and was the
guiding hand in the extension of this road
to Piggott, Arkansas.
"He was also one of the organizers of the
Dunklin county fair and was its secretary
from its inception in 1891 to the date of his
death, and it was in this enterprise that the
writer came so closely in touch with the
many lovable and manly qualities of R. H.
Jones. He was a man of sound judgment,
aggressive and ever a leader, kind yet firm,
and his arm was ever ready to uplift his fel-
low man or aid the unfortunate and op-
pressed.
"He was ever cheerful and jovial and his
office in Kennett was the rendezvous for
many who were drawn to him as the magnet
draws the steel. His place will be hard to fill
in many ways. In no instance are the words
of Emerson more aptly applied :
" 'Green be the turf above thee.
Friend of my better days,
None knew thee but to love thee,
None named thee but to praise.'
"Let us ever keep his memory green as a
tribute to him, one of the worthiest sons
Dunklin county ever produced."
HxjEY F. Bell. There is no mistaking the
high order of esteem accorded to ilr. Bell in
his native county, and he is knovra as a young
man of most genial and companionable dis-
position as well as one of distinctive literary
and business ability. He is editor of the Lead
Belt Banner, one of the alert and attractive
weekly papers of southeastern Missouri, and
is one of the representative business men of
the younger generation in his community.
At Bonne Terre, St. Francois county, he was
born on the 6th of September, 1885.
Huey Frank Bell is a son of Stephen and
Josephine (Lyons) Bell, the former of whom
was born in Carroll county, Virginia, and the
latter in "Wythe county, Virginia. The father
has been a resident of Missouri for fully
thirty years, and his entire active career has
been one of close identification with the min-
ing industry. For a number of years past he
has been captain of the mines of the Federal
Lead Company at Elvins, St. Francois
county, and he is well known in connection
with this line of industry in Missouri, where
his long experience in practical and executive
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
capacities has made him an authority in his
chosen vocation, the while he has so ordered
his course as to retain the unqualified con-
fidence and regard of his fellow men. He and
his wife maintain their home at Elvins, and
of their seven children four sons and one
daughter are li\ang. Stephen Bell is a
staunch supporter of the principles for which
the Republican party stands sponsor, is af-
filiated with the Ancient Order of United
AYorkmen, and his wife holds membership in
the ^Methodist Episcopal church. South. The
Bell family was founded in Virginia in an
early day and is of staunch Scotch lineage.
Huey F. Bell is indebted to the public
scliools of Bonne Terre for his early educa-
tional discipline, which included the curri-
culum of the high school, and thereafter he
attended the Gem City Business College, at
Quincy, Illinois, and the Moorhart Business
College, at Farmington, Missouri, in which
later he was graduated in 1906. After leav-
ing busines college Jlr. Bell was employed in
various clerical and executive capacities in
his home county until ]\Iarch, 1911, when he
purchased an interest in the Lead Brit Ban-
ner, of Leadwood, of which he has since been
the editor. The paper is issued on Friday of
each week, is a six-column quarto, is clean
and attractive in its letter-press, and is an
efi:"ective exponent of local interests, as well
as of the cause of the Republican party, to
which its editor gives unswerving allegiance.
Mr. Bell is known as a voracious student and
reader and his fund of information is broad
and varied, so that he is specially well
equipped for his work in connection with the
"art preservative of all arts." He has much
originality in thought and diction and has
made his paper one of the brightest weeklies
of this section of the state, besides which he
has been a contributor to various advertising
periodicals, principally on the sub.jeet of con-
sistent newspaper advertising. He is an in-
tuitive optimist, bright and cheery and every
ready with a kind word or deed, so that he
has gained to himself a wide circle of friends
in the county that has ever represented his
home. He is affiliated with the Brotherhood
of American Yeomen and liolds memliership
in the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Mr. Bell still remains in the ranks of the
bachelors, but the perpetuity of this status is
not to be predicted with undue assurance,
even by the writer of this sketch, who has
long considered himself immune in this
direction.
Robert H. Tinnust, of Hornersville, began
his active career as a teacher when twenty
years old. Still a young man, he has never-
theless accomplished what manj' men work
half a lifetime to attain. As teacher, farmer
and business man he is known as one of the
most prosperous citizens of Hornersville, and
to thrift, enterprise and intelligent industry
he owes a substantial position in the world.
Born in Bollinger county, Missouri, Au-
gust 19, 1878, he spent his younger days on
a farm. For two years he attended Concor-
dia College in AYayne countj", where he com-
pleted two 3'ears of high school work, and
then took a general literary coui'se at Will
Jlayfield College at ilarble Hill, Missouri.
His first teaching was done in the country
schools of BoUinger county, and he then spent
eight years in the schools of Dunklin county.
He was principal of the Clarkton school two
j'ears, three years as principal at Coldwater,
and was teacher and also principal for three
years in the Bone school.
On November 9, 190-4, I\Ir. Tinnin married
Miss ilinnie Bone. She is a daughter of W.
il. Bone, president of the Bank of Horners-
ville. After their marriage he continued
teaching, and also has given a large share of
his attention to farming. There are few
more successful farmers in this part of the
state than ilr. Tinnin. He conducts his op-
erations on a place of two hundred acres,
which at his own expense he has improved
with a comfortable dwelling house and with
fences all around the farm. Corn and cot-
ton are his staple crops. In 1910 he raised
three thousand bushels of corn and fifty bales
of cotton, the latter crop averaging from
one thousand to one thousand five hundred
pounds to the acre. With his farming and
teaching he is one of the busiest men in Dun-
klin county, but this labor has its rewards,
for his annual profits run from two thousand
to twenty-five hundred dollars a year, and he
is laying the foundation for larger activities
and greater prosperity in the future.
Mr. Tinnin is affiliated with the ilasonic
and Odd Fellows lodges at Hornersville. He
and his wife are members of the Methodist
Episcopal church. South. They are the par-
ents of three children: Nelson, born Octo-
ber 8, 1905; Opal, born September 26, 1907;
and Ruby, born November 9, 1909.
Mr. Tinnin is a son of Benjamin A. and
Martha J. (Gibbs) Tinnin, both born in
Missouri, in Bollinger county. B. A. Tinnin
was a farmer, residing four miles east of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
791
Marquand, in Bollinger county, and is aged
now titty-six years. His wife died in Xovem-
ber, 1907, at the age of tifty-two years. Both
were memhers of the ilethodist Episcopal
church. South. Robert H. is one of eight
children, all living, he being the eldest.
They are: L. E., of Texas; Mollie (McKin-
zie). of Ste. Genevieve county, Missouri; K.
G., of Flat River, Missouri; H. B., of Howell,
Indiana; Bess (Singleton), of East St. Louis,
Illinois; Rosa (Long), of East St. Louis; and
Richard, at home.
Col. William ^l. Newberry, "Willlvm
Newberry and Dr. Frank Newberry. Per-
haps no man who has ever lived within the
confines of IMadison county has been so in-
timately concerned with its history and better-
ment nor more sincerely mourned than
Colonel "William Newberry. His death was a
distinct loss to the county not only because
she lost one of her oldest residents and most
highly esteemed public men, but because she
lost a noble man and a loyal friend.
Colonel Newberry was born in Frankfort,
Kentucky, at the very beginning of the nine-
teenth century, in September, 1800. His early
education he obtained in the public schools of
Frankfort, and at eighteen came to the then
far western territory of Missouri. He located
at what was then the Kewanee village of St.
Micheal, an old French settlement in the creek
bottom, just north of the present site of Fred-
ericktown, Madison county, Missouri. Two
years later, in 1820, there came a great flood
which completely inundated the little French
village and it was never rebuilt. After the
flood was over it was decided to move the set-
tlement to the hill, now the site of Frederick-
town. Mr. Newberry being a practical sur-
veyor, was selected to lay out the new town.
From then until his death he never ceased to
have the interest of Madison county as of the
dearest concerns of his heart. He was always
actively associated with its political history,
and in every public office he ever undertook
he gained the same clean record of service
done with scrupiilous honesty and the same
zeal that other men apply to private enter-
prise. He was at one time probate .judge for
the county and filled the offices of county and
circuit clerk, pi'osecuting attorney and col-
lector. When he was collector, the capitol of
Missouri was at Saint Charles. Saint Charles
county, and it was necessary for him to take
the state's share of the money he collected to
the capital himself. He used to make the
trip on horse baek, carrying the money in his
saddle bags. He was often accompanied by
merchants en route for Saint Louis, the near-
est, large city. At that time there were very
few banks in southeastern Missouri, except
those at Cape Girardeau and at St. Louis. In
all Colonel Newberry served in various offices
for a period of forty years, a brilliant record
of efficiency and uncpiestioned trust. He was
licensed to practice at the bar of Missouri at
Jackson, this state, and he was everywhere
known as an old-time Democrat who always
adhered to and supported his party nomi-
nations.
Colonel Newberry lived on his estate, lo-
cated just west of Fredericktown. The large
farm which was his now lies, most of it,
within the corporate limits of Fredericktown,
and is an unusually fine and fertile tract of
land. Colonel Newberry was actively inter-
ested in the organization of the Methodist
Episcopal church at Fredericktown and it was
his liberality that bestowed the lot that is the
site for the present church.
In 1832 was solemnized the marriage of
Colonel Newberry to Miss Gabrella Frier.
She was born in Loudoun county. Virginia,
and had many of the graces for which the
womanhood of the Dominion state has ever
been noted. She was the daughter of a
wealthy business man of English descent and
the daughter of an old Virginia family. Mr.
Frier was known as the man who put in the
first stage line between Saint Genevieve and
Pocahontas on to Little Rock. Arkansas. He
came to Missouri in 1825 and was a resident
of the state until his death. He accumulated
a large fortune for those days when the big
corporation was not yet known, and was the
owner of an extensive farm three miles south
of Fredericktown. Mrs. Newberry, his daugh-
ter pa.ssed away in 1877, at the age of sixty.
Of the children of the union of Colonel and
Mrs. Newberry three survive,. Mrs. Sallie
Ramey, of Fredericktown, William and Dr.
Frank Newberry. Their father passed to the
Great Beyond in February, 1876. His passing
left the county bereft of one of its most able
and devoted citizens.
William Newberry, son of the late Colonel
Newberry, is now a farmer and stockman re-
siding east of Fredericktown, and in partner-
ship with his son Henry is operating a four
hundred acre farm, half of which is in cultiva-
tion. He was born at the home farm adjacent
to Fredericktown. December 23, 1844, and re-
ceived a good education as a boy. In April.
792
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
1864, he entered a mercantile establishment as
clerk, after his return from the army. He had
served a short time in the Confederate army
under Colonel Jeffrey, being captured and
paroled. For thirty-five years he continued to
be occupied as a salesman in the Frederick-
town store, with tlie exception of eight years
he spent in the public service. He was twice
elected to the position of county collector, for
terms of four years each. Ten years ago he
took up the great basic industry in which he
has been eminently successful.
In October, 1866, was solemnized the mar-
riage of William Newberry to Miss Maggie
Montgomery, who was born in Saint Francois
county, a daughter of Henry Montgomery, a
stockdealer who had in the early days operated
a stage line in southeastern Missouri through
Madison, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau coun-
ties. Mr. ^Montgomery passed away in Benton
county, Arkansas. Mrs. Newberry spent her
early life in Madison county and died here in
January, 1903, at the age of fifty-six years.
She and her husband were members of the
Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is
one of the trustees. This union was blessed
with several sons, who have grown to be use-
ful men. Mr. Newberry is an earnest Free-
mason having been made a Mason over foi'ty
years ago. Like his father, he is a member
and loyal supporter of the Methodist church.
Dr. Frank R. Newberry, brother of Wil-
liam and son of Colonel William M. New-
berry, is now one of the most prominent physi-
cians and surgeons in Fredericktown. Com-
ing from a long line of aneestoi-s, early set-
tlers in Newberryport, Massachusetts, and the
town of the same name in South Carolina, he
was born at the old Newberry homestead at
Fredericktown, Missouri, January 25, 1853.
Dr. Newberry was reared in his native town
and obtained his medical education at the
University of New York City, graduating
there with the class of 1875. After gi-adua-
tion he came at once to Fredericktown, wiiere
with energy and skill he built up a large prac-
tice. He was united in marriage to Miss Susie
Webb, of Iron count.y, Missouri. Of their
union several cliildren have been born, all
bright and intellectual, and give promise of
doing well.
Politically Dr. Newberry has been active
in the workings of the Democratic party, and,
like his father, has served the people of the
county in many public offices, bringing to each
those sterling qualities of progressiveness and.
absolute integrity with which the name of
Newberry has become synonymous. He has
been mayor of Fredericktown, and has repre-
sented the county both as a state representa-
tive and in the Missouri senate. While Dr.
NeW'berry was in the general assembly, he was
the author of the Newberry law-, which elim-
inated all amusements, gambling, dances, and
musical instruments from saloons, a law which
has since worked out for the better moral
status of the liquor business.
Dr. Newberry holds a prominent place
among the Masons of Missouri. He has both
the Royal Arch Mason and Knights Templar
degrees, and has had the honor of being dis-
trict deputy grand master and district deputy
grand lecturer. He is also a member of the
Knights of Pythias. He is one of the trustees
of the Methodist Episcopal church. South.
For the most part the practice of his pro-
fession and a determination to keep abreast
with all that modern research is daily contrib-
uting to medical science have occupied the
entire time of Dr. New^berry. He is a mem-
ber of the IMadison County Medical Society,
of the Missouri State Medical Society and the
Southeast jMissouri Bledical Society, being
one of its charter members. Dr. Newlierry
was for four years surgeon general of the
National Guard of Missouri during the ad-
ministration of Gov. Lawrence V. Stephens
and was with the Missouri troops during the
Spanish-American war. He was for thirty
.years local surgeon for the Iron Mountain
Railroad.
Benjamin F. Thompson, of Flat River, is
a native Missourian, the son of an old settler,
and one of the active business men and pub-
lic-spirited citizens of this section of south-
eastern Missouri.
He was born in Ralls county June 20,
1876. His father, R. W. Thompson, who was
born in Pike county, this state, January 1,
1837, was reared on a fann, received his edu-
cation in the country schools of the time, and
while very young served three years in the
Thirty-third Missouri Infantry of the Fed-
eral army. He returned from the field of
war to become a school teacher, a vocation he
followed for four years. Then he took up a
tract of land in Ralls county and for twenty-
three years was a farmer. From 1893 to
1906 he lived a retired life fn Vandalia, ]\Iis-
souri. After a brief residence at Green For-
est, Arkansas, he returned to Missouri and
spent his last days at Hannibal, where he
passed away November 28, 1908. At the age
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI
r93
of thirty he was married in Pike county to
Miss Elizabeth Williams. Six children were
born of their union, Benjamin F. being the
fifth. The mother died during the infancy
of her j'oungest child, and several years later
the father married Mrs. Mattie E. Danforth,
of Vandalia, who is still living. Two children
were born to the second marriage. R. W.
Thompson was a Republican in politics and
a member of the iMethodist Episcopal church.
The early life of ^Ir. B. F. Thompson was
spent on a farm, during which time he at-
tended country school and two years in the
Vandalia high school. At the age of sixteen
he began life on his own account, and was
engaged in various occupations until he was
twent.y-four. He then entered the profes-
sion of photography, and has since been lo-
cated at Flat River, where he has built up a
good business. While Flat River was an in-
corporated town he served in the office of city
treasurer. In politics he is a Republican, is
a member of the Baptist church, and affiliates
with the Knights of Pythias, the ]\Iodern
Woodmen of America and the Fraternal Or-
der of Eagles. During the Spanish-Amer-
ican war he was an enlisted soldier in the
Fifth Missouri Volunteers.
On May 21. 1902, Jlr. Thompson was mar-
ried to iliss Sallie Callen, of Vandalia, Mis-
souri.
Joseph R, ilooRE is a retired farmer of
St. Clair and has been identified with the
state of ^lissouri for more than fifty years.
His advent to the commonwealth dates from
1858, at which time the family came out from
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where his birth oc-
curred ilarch 20, 1810. His ancestors were
Union county pioneers and his father and
grandfather were each of Keystone state
birth. In the early days his father, James
Moore, followed the dual vocation of farmer
and railroad contractor and his location in
Franklin county was just prior to the begin-
ning of the Civil war. The grandfather, also
named James ]\Ioore, was a farmer and
builder of bridges, who lived and died in
Union county. His birth occurred not far
distant from the Revolutionary period and
he lived to be eighty years of age.
James Moore, father of him whose name
initiates this biographical record, was born
in the early years of the nineteenth century
and died some time in the '70s. He was an
earnest citizen, loyal and enthusiastic in sup-
port of the Union in time of Rebellion and
he furnished three sous to wear the Federal
blue. He was a Republican and participated
to some extent in local politics after the war,
being elected county judge of Franklin
county. He returned to the state of Pennsyl-
vania towards the close of his life and passed
away in the vicinity of his birthplace. He
took as his wife Mary Ludwig, of Pennsyl-
vania who preceded him by some years to
the Great Beyond, her demise occurring at
Old Mines, Missouri, in 1859. The children
born to these worthy people were as fol-
lows: Edward, who died in Miller county,
Missouri, at the time of the Civil war, leav-
ing two children; Annie, who married Pres-
ton Lincoln and passed away while a resi-
dent of a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts;
James, who lived in Missouri until a few
years ago when he removed to Columbus,
Ohio; William, who died at Newport, Wash-
ington; Joseph R.. of this notice; Samuel,
who died in St. Louis; and Charles, a resi-
dent of Union, Missouri, and ex-surveyor of
the county. The brothers James, Samuel and
Joseph, were enlisted soldiers of the volun-
teer army during the Civil war.
Joseph R. Moore received his higher edu-
cation in Bucknell University at Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania. He finished school early in
his "teens and engaged in railroad work on
the New York & Erie Railroad at Susque-
hanna, Pennsylvania, as a machinist and was
at different points in the state before his ad-
vent to IMissouri. Here he resumed work
with the ^Missouri Pacific Company but upon
what is now the 'Frisco system. He re-
mained in the state until the war ended and
then returned to Pennsylvania, where he was
employed again with the New York & Erie.
He made several changes, being for a time
with the Catawissa road and then becomdng
identified with the North Central roalroad,
^vith which he continued to be associated un-
til 1867. In that year he finally left Penn-
sylvania and came to IMissouri to resume his
services with the Missouri Pacific. In two
years the j'oung man was given the responsi-
ble position of engineer and spent a cjuarter
of a century at the throttle, his residence be-
ing maintained for a part of the time at
Pacific, Missouri, and for a greater period
at Springfield. He quit the service in 1889,
but still retains his connection with the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
Mr. Moore's residence in St. Clair dates
from the year last mentioned, when he bade
farewell to the strenuous and hazardous life
r94
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
to which he had devoted his energies for a
quarter century. The peaceful, independent
life of the agriculturist appealed to him after
the noise and rush of the road and he secured
one of the fertile Missouri farms, his prop-
erty being situated near St. Clair, in Frank-
lin county. He continued successfully en-
gaged in this fashion until 1906, when he
placed a tenant in charge of his farm and be-
came a resident of Saint Clair. When the
Bank of Saint Clair was organized he as-
sumed a share of the financial responsibility
and at the present time holds the ofBce of
vice-president. He has shown marked dis-
criminatiou in his part of the management
of the atfairs of the bank, the personal in-
tegrity and high standing of the interested
principals of the institution constituting its
most valuable asset and giving assurance of
its continued growth and prosperity. Buren
Duck\vorth is president and Gilbert Lay,
cashier, and the bank is incorporated for
twenty-five thousand dollars.
In October, 1869, Mr. Moore was married
at Brighton, Illinois, to I\Iiss Dell S. Talcott,
daughter of Daniel Talcott, a New Yorker,
who came to Missouri and took his place
among the state's substantial farmer-citi-
zenship. Mr. and Mrs. Moore share their
hospitable and delightful home with one
daughter — Miss Ada E. 'Sir. iloore is a
Republican, having for many years sub-
scribed to the policies and principles of the
Grand Old Party and he takes an interest in
all matters relating to the public welfare.
He is one of the honored veterans of the
Civil war, his enlistment in the cause of the
Union having been made at Saint Clair,
where he had come just previous to the firing
of the first guns at Sumter. He became a
member of Company C of the Tenth Mis-
souri Cavalry and participated in the battle
of Wilson Creek. Under Captain Bowen the
company entered the engagement as an in-
dependent organization, the regiment being
not completed at that time. ilr. iMoore was
shot in the left leg — hit with a musket ball —
and so seriously wounded as to make his dis-
charge necessary. His military service was
thus of brief duration. With the passing of
the years he has by no means lost his interest
in the comrades of other days and is a prom-
inent member of the Grand Army of the
Republic.
James Belchamber. Forty-two years of
service on one railroad is suggestive of old
age, but although ]Mr. Belchamber has been
with the Iron jMoimtaiu road for that time
no one would think of him in that light, for
he is just in his prime. However, few peo-
ple enter railroad work as early as Mr. Bel-
chamber did. He was but sixteen when he
was first employed by the company, and so
he had an early start.
Port Huron, Michigan, was the place of
Mr. Belchamber 's birth and the year was
1856. His father, Daniel Belchamber, was a
native of England and his mother, Anne, of
Canada. The father was a painter by trade,
and in 1859 he traded his paint shops and
business in Michigan for two hundred acres
of land near Glen Allen. He entered the
state militia during the year of 1861. James
Belchamber went from Glen Allen to Sar-
nia, Canada, to attend school, thus continu-
ing for two years, and he returned home in
1871, during the memorable Chicago fire. In
the following year he began to work for the
railroad as a watchman, while in 1880 he
became an engineer and is still working for
the road in that capacity.
In the same year in which he became an en-
gineer Mr. Belchamber was married. His
bride was Miss Viney Elizabeth Peterson, a
native of Arkansas. They have five children :
Emma, born in 1882, is Mrs. Ira J. Kness;
James A. is married to Hattie Schuler ; and
Lula, Leona and Gail are still at home. The
family reside on the farm of two hundred
acres which is the old Belchamber estate. At
the time of the father's death the property
was divided between the mother, one brother,
one sister and Mr. Belchamber of this re-
view, and before the mother's death she
willed her share to him, and he also pur-
chased the interests of his brother and sister,
thus becoming the owner of the parental es-
tate.
Mr. and Llrs. Belchamber are valued mem-
bers of the Baptist church. He is connected
with the lodges of the Ancient Order of
United Workmen and with the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers. In politics his
views are in harmony with those of the
Democratic party.
Clarence Raymond Bramblet. Among
the promising young citizens of Flat River
must be numbered Clarence Raymond
Bramblet, cashier of the Miners & Merchants
Bank, who since his first assumption of the
office in the year 1909 has proved himself
an efficient, alert and well-trained banker
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST illSSOURI
795
and has taken an active part in building up
this splendid institution. He is a na-
tive son of the state and like so many
of the loyal citizens of Missouri who can
claim it as a birthplace he has paid it the
supreme compliment of electing to remain
permanently within its fair borders. Mr.
Bramblet was born in Ralls county, Missouri,
March 26, 1884. His father, Henry W.
Bramblet, by name, was bom in the year
1852, also in Ralls county. He spent his
early life upon the farm and at the age of
twenty-four years he married Miss Nora G.
Pulliam, of St. Charles county, daughter of
Benjamin Pulliam. To this union were born
two children, — he whose name inaugurates
this review and Orie H. The elder gentle-
man abandoned farming as much as fifteen
years ago and since that time has been en-
gaged as a commercial traveler for that im-
portant concern, the International Harvester
Company. He resides at the present time in
St. Louis. In politics Mr. Bramblet, senior,
is in harmony with the principles and poli-
cies of the Democratic party, and he and his
admirable wife are affiliated with the Metho-
dist Episcopal church, South.
Clarence Raymond Bramblet passed the
roseate days of childhood and youth upon his
father's farm, and, as is the pleasant portion
of the usual farmer's son, lived very near to
Nature's heart. In fact, as an assistant in
the various activities to be encountered upon
the farm, he became familiar with agriculture
in its many departments. He was not drawn,
however, to adopt agriculture as his own oc-
cupation, and after securing a good general
education in the district school and the high
school at New London, Missouri, he re-
ceived an offer of a position in the bank of
New London and accepted the same, being
then about eighteen years of age. He began
his banking career in the capacity of book-
keeper and proved faithful and efficient, re-
maining thus employed for two years and a
half. He went thence to St. Louis and for
four years was employed with the Mercan-
tile Trust Company. At the end of that
time he received an offer of the cashiership
of the Miners & ]\Ierchants Bank of Flat
River and came to this city, with which he
has ever since been identified. He still holds
the position above referred to and while he
has gained recognition from financiers, as an
able assistant, he is at the same time known
to be one of the most progressive and pub-
lic spirited citizens, giving his support to
all measures likely to result in general
benefit.
On June 11, 1911, Mr. Bramblet became
a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts, the
young lady to become his wife and the mis-
tress of his household being Miss Helen
Vaughn, of Poplar Bluff, daughter of J. R.
A. Vaughn, presiding elder of the Poplar
Bluff district of the Methodist Episcopal
church. South. Mr. Bramblet and his admir-
able young wife are affiliated with tlie Jletho-
dist Episcopal church. South. In his politi-
cal conviction, the subject is aligned with the
supporters of the Democratic party and his
lodge relations extend to the great Masonic
order and the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. In addition to the interests above
referred to, he is treasurer of the Lead Belt
Telephone Company.
James W. Gargas. After spending the
early part of his life in the struggle to make a
living, James W. Gargas has now reached the
point when he has one of the best farms in the
county, as the result of his own efforts. He
was born September 4, 1869, on his father's
farm near Shady Grove. His grandfather was
a native of Giles county, Tennessee, and was
one of the earliest settlers in Dunklin county,
coming liere about 1840, when the country
was in a wild, uncultivated condition and very
few of the towns were built up. His son, the
father of James W., did not come to Missouri
with his parents, but went to Alabama, not
coming here until 1861. Soon after his set-
tling in the county he married Esther Baker,
who helped him in all his efforts. He settled
on the farm that James W. owns to-day ; at
that time it was thickly covered with timber,
part of which he cleared and helped to build
roads. He died in July, 1876, aged about
thirty-three years, but his widow is still liv-
ing, with James W. She was born Julv 8,
1845.
James AV. Gargas was deprived of a father's
care when he was only four years old, but
his mother has been devoted to him all of his
life. He went to school at Shady Grove and
Liberty. One of the schools he attended was a
free public school, but the others were sub-
scription schools. Being brought up as he was
on the farm, he early learned all about farm
work of different kinds, he began when he
was very small to do odd jobs and to earn
small sums of money, but the sums he earned
were very small. When he was twenty years
old he worked out for a time, but only re-
r96
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
ceived twelve and a half dollars a month. He
worked around for the farmers in the neigh-
borhood, receiving from twenty-five cents to
fifty cents a day. His expenses, however,
were small, but little as the pay was he man-
aged to save most of the amount he made.
He rented the place on which he lives now,
l)Ut did not do very well at first as his own
master. He finally was able to buy forty acres
of land, eight miles south of Kennett, not
paying cash for the land. It seemed at first
as if he would not be able to make a go of it,
as the property was very much run down, the
fences were poor and the land pretty much
worn out. He began to fertilize the land, so
that now it will grow better cotton and more
corn than before. Having once got a start,
the rest has been comparatively easy. He
now owns one hundred and eight.y-six acres of
land, part of which he rents to tenants. He
has put up three houses for these different
renters and in 1909 he built a good seven-room
house and a fine barn for himself. He is grad-
ually doing away with picket fences and
putting in wire fences. He is not only im-
jiroving his home place, but is spending
inone.v on his rented places.
In 1889. when he was .just beginning to
work for other farmers. James "W. Gargas
married Alva Goodwin. She only lived eleven
months, having borne one child, Ella, who was
cared for by his mother. On August 13. 1896,
he marrieci Media Jones, daughter of Ben-
.iamin and Nancy (Pruett) Jones, near Car-
uth. Mrs. Gargas was born January 27, 1879,
and has lived here all of her life. Her par-
ents, too, were raised here, as her mother came
to I\Iissouri when she was seven years old and
her father was born here. Mr. Gargas has had
five children by his second marriage. — Effie,
born September 24, 1897 ; Annie, bom Febru-
ary 1.3. 1900; Van M., born July 13. 1902:
IMary. born April 27, 1907 : and Bertie, born
September 16, 1909.
Mr. Gargas is a member of the Ancient Free
and Accepted IMasons at Hornersville and of
the Woodmen of the World, lodge No. 335. at
f'aruth. He has done well for himself and his
family, after he once got a good start, and all
he has is the result of his own efforts.
R. W. I\rc]\rT-LLiN. For the past eight years
]\fr. R. W. McMullin has been in charge of
the Jefffrson CounUf Democrat, ably continu-
insr the work in which his father before him
was distinguished.
Richard Watson McMullin was a native of
Jeflierson county, born in 181:2, on his father 's
farm in Platte township, the eldest son
of Reverend John T. and Eliza M. McMullin.
Educated in the public schools of the county,
he became a teacher after completing his
school course. At the beginning of the war
he was drafted, but was soon discharged on
account of ill health. On October .5, 1864, he
married Mary E. Reppy. daughter of B. S.
and Rebecca Reppy. Mrs. McMullin lived but
one year, and some thing over a .year after
her death, Jlr. ilcJIullin was again married,
to Ellen, daughter of Emma 0. and Elias F.
Honey. They had ten children, four sons and
six daughters, of whom R. W. McMullin, the
present editor, is the eldest. Mrs. McMullin
died in 1898, on the thirtieth of August.
R. W. McMullin, senior, was a member of
the company that published the first paper of
Hillsboro in 1866, the original or the Jeffer-
son Democrat. In 1871 he became sole owner,
buying his partner's interest out, and on June
21, published the first issue of the journal
under his own management. The name of
the paper had been the Jefferson County
Leader but upon assuming control of the or-
gan, Mr. McMullin changed the name to the
Jefferson County Democrat.
Mr. McMullin was often called upon to
represent the party which he so ably sup-
ported with his pen and his popularity is indi-
cated by the numerous offices which he held.
He was at different times clerk of the county
court, chairman of the Democratic count.v
convention, member of the school board and
town trvistee, besides serving as probate judge
from 1877 to 1881 and as treasurer from 1887
to 1889. He was a sound business man as
well as an able public servant, as is evinced
by his being one of the original stockholders
of the Hillsboro Bank and at one time its vice-
president. Mr. Mc]\Iullin was a member both
of the Missouri Press Association and of the
South-east Missouri Press Association.
His death occurred on May 2, 1903, five
years after that of his wife. Both of them
were members of the Presbyterian church.
Upon the death of his father. R. W. Mc-
Mullin, junior, assumed the management of
the paper. He claims Hillsboro as his native
town and was born here in 1867. After com-
pleting the course of the public schools of
Hillsboro, he traveled for some time and then
attended the School of ]\Tines at Rollo. Mis-
souri, for three years, returning to Hillsboro
at the conclusion of his studies at Rollo. Mr.
I\IcMullin spent most of his time attending
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nSSOUEI
797
to his father's fine gardens until he was called
upon to manage the newspaper. For a while
one of his brothers worked with him, but he
is no longer in Hillsboro.
Mr. llcMullin continues to publish the
paper on the lines followed bj' his father.
The politics of the journal are still those of
the Democrats, ilr. McMuUin is interested
in politics but has no desire for office, pre-
ferring to devote his whole time to the Demu-
crat, all of whose editorials he writes. Like
his father, he maintains membership in the
Missouri Press Association and in the South-
east ilissouri Association. Fraternally he is
active in the A. 0. U. W.
Edward Thilenius. A distinctively prom-
inent and influential citizen of Perryville,
Missouri, is Edward Thilenius, who has been
identified with the milling business during
the major portion of his active career and who
is now incumbent of the responsible position
of superintendent of the Perryville ililling
Company, in which important concern he is a
stockholder. J\Ir. Thilenius was born in the
city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 8th of
March, 1849, and he is a son of George C. and
Charlotte D. F. (Stuhldreer) Thilenius, both
of whom were born in Germany, the former
at Uslar on the 12th of IMay, 1803, and the
latter at Adelebsen, on the 7th of Septem-
ber, 1808. Mr. and Mrs. George C. Thilenius
became the parents of twelve children — six
boys and six girls — of whom five are living at
the present time, in 1911. Edward, of this
review, is the youngest in order of birth of
the above children and George C. Thilenius,
of Cape Girardeau is the eldest. George C.
Thilenius was married in Germany and he
and his wife immigrated to America about
the year 1848, location having been made at
St. Louis, where the family home was main-
tained throughout their lives. The father
was summoned to the life eternal in the year
1883 and the mother passed into the great be-
yond in 1887. ]\Ir. Thilenius was a merchant
by occupation and in addition to a number of
other important business enterprises he was
also interested in the Shaefer Soap Factory
of St. Louis.
Edward Thilenius completed his prelimin-
ary educational training with a thorough
course in the German Institute at St. Louis,
being graduated in that excellent institution
at the age of nineteen years. After leaving
school he entered the employ of his brother
at Cape Girardeau, there learning the milling
business. He continued to reside at Cape
Girardeau until 1881, in which year he came
to Perrj'ville, where he has since maintained
his home and where for a time he was man-
ager for tlie Biehle & Jaeger ]\Iilliug Com-
pany. In 1891 the German Savings Institu-
tion of St. Louis assumed control of the above
concern and for the ensuing twelve years Mr.
Thilenius was in their emploj'. In 1903 the
mill was reorganized, under the name of the
Perryville ]\Iilling Company, the same being
incorporated with a capital stock of twent}'-
five thousand dollars. Mr. Thilenius is a
stockholder in this company and he is the
present superintendent, a position he has held
since 1903. In politics ]\Ir. Thilenius is a
stanch advocate of the cause of the Republi-
can party and while undoubtedly he has not
been without that honorable ambition which
is so powerful and useful as an incentive to
activity in public affairs, he regards the pur-
suits of private life as being in themselves
abundantl.y worthy of his best efforts. In
community affairs he is active and influential
and his support is readily and generously
given to man.y measures for the general prog-
ress and improvement. He is a devout mem-
ber of the Lutheran church in his religious
inclinations and is affiliated with the local
aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
On the 19th of October, 1873, was solemn-
ized the marriage of ilr. Thilenius to J\Iiss
Emelia Bramdes, who was reared and edu-
cated at Cape Girardeau and who is a daugh-
ter of Henry Bramdes, of that city. JMr. and
!Mrs. Thilenius are the fond parents of
five children, namely, — Arnold, Theodore,
Helena, George and Edward. Arnold is a
dentist by profession and is engaged in his
life work at St. Louis; Theodore is engaged
in the automobile business at Perryvile;
Helena is the wife of F. J. Morton and they
maintain their home at Perrj-ville, Missouri.
George is connected with the freight depart-
ment of the Frisco system at St. Louis: and
Edward is in the employ of Milliken Drag
Company at St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Thilen-
ius are popular in connection with the best
social activities of Perryville and their spac-
ious and attractive home is widely renowned
for its generous hospitality.
H. T. O'Kellet, M. D., during the short
time he has been identified with the medical
profession in Patton, Missouri, has already
given evidence of possessing abilities and per-
sonal traits which cannot fail to achieve sue-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :MISS0URI
cess. The name of O'Kelley has been prom-
inent in southeastern Missouri for almost half
a century, and the familj- has resided in the
United States for six generations. During
the years which have elapsed since the first
O'Kelley came to America, his descendants
have been identified with the military, relig-
ious, agricultural, political, commercial and
professional life of the states in which they
have severally made their homes. The O 'Kel-
leys have at all times been characterized by
their high sense of honor, their valor and their
efficient performance of any duties with which
they were entrusted. Dr. H. T. O'Kelley,
whose name initiates this sketch, and a review
of whose career thus far follows, has done
honor to the fair name he bears.
The founder of the American branch of
the O'Kelley family was James, who immi-
grated from Ireland at an early date and
settled in Virginia. He is distinguished as
having been the first elder of the Methodist
Episcopal church who was ordained in the
United States.
Benjamin, the only sou of Rev. James
O'Kelley, passed his entire life in North Car-
olina, with the exception of the seven years
during which he served in the Revolutionary
war. On leaving the army he married Mary
Williams and became the father of five sons
and four daughters, the sons being: Solo-
mon, Frank, Nimrod, Charles and Benja-
min.
Frank O'Kelley married Nancy Fain, a
young lady of Irish descent, who bore him
six sons, — T. K., Asberry, Joseph, William,
James and Charles. In 1837 the family
moved to Tennessee ; twenty years later they
migrated to Arkansas and in 186-4, during
the progress of the Civil war, came to Mis-
souri, where they settled in Bollinger county.
T. K. O'Kelley, the eldest son of Frank,
was born October 20, 1833, in North Caro-
lina, and after concluding his preliminary
educational training in the public schools he
entered Barrett College, in the Cumberland
Mountains of Tennessee, which he attended
two years, and was gi-aduated from this
Christian college in the class of 1856. He
forthwith commenced to teach and also to
study medicine, having determined to become
a physician. In 1857, on July 14. he married
M. A. Capehart, daughter of Hugh Cape-
hart, of South Carolina. In 1859 he mi-
grated to northwest Arkansas. After the
Civil war began he spent considerable of his
time fighting bushwhackers, and, loyal to
the Union, in March. 1864, he enlisted in the
Second Arkansas Cavalry, in which regi-
ment he served until the close of the war.
On his return to the life of a civilian he lo-
cated in Patton, Missouri, in September,
1865 ; continued his interrupted medical prac-
tice, and has since that date remained there,
where he has been known as a successful
physician. He is the oldest medical practi-
tioner in Bollinger county. He has not, how-
ever, confined his attentions entirely to his
professional work, but has superintended the
management of his property. At one time
he owned one thousand acres of land, which
he divided between his children, retaining for
himself a farm of one hundred and sixty
acres situated near Patton : he also has con-
siderable property in the town itself. Dr.
and Mrs. T. K. O'Kelley reared four chil-
dren, of whom we make note as follows: —
Harry was born February 4, 1859, in Ten-
nessee, and is now a physician residing at
Porterville, New Madrid county, Missouri,
He had four children, — Lena May (Mrs. Wil-
son), mother of Herbert; Fannie (ilrs.
Reeves), who has one son, William; Juanita;
and Flint. The second son of Dr. T. K.
O'Kelley is Zachariah A. He married Rosa
A. Heitman, who bore five children, — Emma,
wife of J. V. Knowles and mother of Irene,
Rosa and Thomas; Henry T., whose biog-
raphy is portrayed in this sketch ; D. G., a
physician; Mattie, and Hattie. Frank M.,
the third son, also had five children, —
Thomas, Anna, Elsie. Franklin and Dorothy.
The only sister of these three brothers was
ilattie M., who married Dr. Pressnell, be-
came the mother of two sons, Charles and
Pinckney. and is now dead. Dr. T. K. 'Kel-
ley has ever retained an interest in his com-
panions at arms, evincing same by his active
connection with the post of the Grand Army
of the Republic, in which he holds member-
ship; in fraternal connection he is also af-
filiated with the Slasonic order, being a mem-
ber of the Blue Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons; his religious sympathies have
remained constant to the faith in which he
was trained — the belief of his forefather,
James, the first ordained elder above men-
tioned, and the Doctor holds membership in
the Methodist Episcopal church. South.
Zachariah A. O'Kelley has been engaged
in agricultural pursuits since he first com-
menced his independent career, and is now
residing with his wife on his farm at Patton.
He prospered and was enabled to give his
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI
.children the best of educational advantages,
the two sons both having entered the medical
profession.
Having traced the 0"Kelley genealogy
down from its American founder up to the
present day, a few words in regard to Dr.
H. T. O'Kelley follow. Born on his father's
farm near Patton, Missouri, June 20, 1885,
when he had attained the proper age he en-
tered the public school at Patton; later
studied at the State Normal School at Cape
Girardeau, in 1905 and 1906. then pursued
a course of study at the Will ^Maj'field Col-
lege at Marble Hill and subsequently matric-
ulated at the Barnes Medical University at
St. Louis, from which institution he was
graduated in the class of 1910. Having thus
obtained his M. D. degree he began to prac-
tice medicine at Lounds, Missouri, where he
remained until July, 1911, at which time he
removed to Patton and entered the office of
his grandfather. Dr. T. K. O'Kelley.
The year in which Dr. O'Kelley was grad-
uated from college was also memorable as
being the one in which he married Miss Ora
Conrad, daughter of Daniel and Eva (Stat-
ler) Conrad, whose biography appears else-
where in this book. Dr. and ilrs. O'Kelley
have one son. T. K. O'Kelley, Jr., born May
17. 1911. The Doctor is affiliated with the
Modern ^Yoodmen of America and with the
Tribe of Ben Hur.
C. S. Williams, M. D., one of the pro-
prietors of the Hornersville Drug Company,
until recent years was prominently active in
the profession of medicine in Southeast Mis-
souri, and has had a long and full career both
professionally and in business.
A native of Carroll county, Tennessee,
where he was born February 10, 1853. he
spent his youth in moderate circumstances
and had to work his way to pay part of his
tuition for his professional education. Dr.
Williams is a graduate of the medical depart-
ment of the University of Nashville, where he
took the three years' course and was grad-
uated valedictorian in a class of one hundred
and ninety. He was in debt when he finished,
and all his subsequent success has been the
result of talent and industry in one who be-
gan life a poor country bo.y.
For the first four years he was engaged in
practice in Tennessee and then for five years
practiced in Illinois. In October. 1885. he
located in Dunklin county, at a time when
this country was new, and he was a physician
among the residents of that time until 1889.
He then moved to Greenway, Ai-kansas, where
he had an excellent practice for twelve years.
Returning to Dunklin county in 1901, he
quickly built up a large practice, but re-
signed it after two years and the last eight
.vears has been engaged in the drug business
as his principal activity. He and Drew Var-
bell began a partnership in May, 1909, last-
ing two years, and then he and Dr. Hill
formed the partnership known as Williams &
Hill.
Dr. Williams is a member of the Dunklin
County Medical Society. Fraternally he has
been a member of the Jlasonic order since
1876, and is actively affiliated with the Blue
Lodge and the Royal Arch Chapter, and is
also a member of the Knights of Pythias. His
church is the ^Methodist, South, in which he
took an active part for a number of years.
He was married in Tennessee, February
14, 1872, to Miss M. E. Swift. They are the
parents of three children : Mrs. J. H. Hardin,
of Hornersville ; Glen, who is employed in the
drug store ; and Lillian, who married Curt
Burns.
W. T. Gay. The biography of AV. T.
Gay, senior partner of the firm Gay &
Schwab, blacksmiths and wagon-makers, is
one of those inspiring narratives of the tri-
umph of industry and skill in which every
American feels a sort of personal pride.
Mr. Gay was born in Devonshire. England,
in 1847, on December 24. Three years later
his parents, W. T. and Selina (Downey)
Gay, came to America and located in Ohio.
They remained in that state for ten years,
then, in 1860, they moved to St. Francois
county, Missouri. They resided mainlj' there,
but spent some time in Iron county. Four
of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. W.
T. Gay are still living. These are John Gay,
of Flat River. Missouri; Mrs. Robert Tetley
of Farmington, ilissouri, a widow ; IMrs. John
Tetley, also a widow, who lives on a farm in
St. Francois county, and W. T. Gay. the
subject of the present sketch. The father
and mother died within two years of each
other, the father in 1884. while on a visit
to one of his sons in Iron county, and the
mother soon afterward. Both were members
of the Episcopal church. Two of their chil-
dren, a boy and girl, aged respectively six
and seven years, died at the same time of
typhoid fever and are buried together in Ohio.
W. T. Gay was reared in St. Francois and
800
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Iron counties. His educational advantages
were limited, but he had the advantage of
training under his father, who was a skilled
workman in the blacksmith and wagon trade.
W. T. and his brother Samuel were associated
with their father, and later the two brothers
conducted the business until Samuel's death,
a period of over twenty years. They had no
capital to start with, and ilr. Gay's remark-
able success has been due solely to his own
tireless energy and sound judgment.
Mr. Gay has had different partners in his
business. For a time one of his nephews was
^\■ith him and for some years he was alone.
Then the present firm was established. Gay
& Schwab are prepared to handle all kinds of
work and employ five assistants, all but one
of whom are skilled mechanics and this is
but one of Mr. Gay's successful enterprises.
A list of his activities makes one think of
Henry "Ward Beecher's advice to the men who
questioned him as to whether he should put
"another iron in the fire." "Put them aU
in," answered Beecher, "and the shovel and
tongs."
Mr. Gay is a stockholder in the Bank of
Ironton, of which he has been president since
its organization in April, 1905. The other
officers are R. E. Rudy, vice-president, one
of Iron county's substantial farmers; E. L.
Cook, cashier; and 0. G. Sehepman, assistant
cashier. Besides these gentlemen, the board
of directors includes Nicholas Allgier and J.
C. PauUus. The bank has a capital of fif-
teen thousand dollars, and a surplus of seven
thousand five hundred dollars. The hand-
some bank building erected by the institu-
tion is one evidence of the success of the un-
dertaking.
Mr. Gay is also in mercantile business, of
the firm Gay & Kindell, Mr. Fred Kindell be-
ing partner and his son, Fred Kindell, Jr.,
being manager. Four clerks are employed in
the large store near the bank. Another of
Mr. Gay's interests is the Clark & Gay Man-
ufacturing Company, of Little Rock, Arkan-
sas. He is a director and the vice president
of this concern, of which he was president for
some years after its establishment in 1905.
The plant is a hub factory manufacturing all
kinds of hubs, spokes, staves and wood-work
for vehicles. The business is capitalized at
eighty thousand dollars and employs seventy
men. Dr. R. W. Gay, of Ironton, is president
of the factory board.
Besides his mercantile, manufacturing,
banking and mechanical enterprises Mr. Gay
has the distinction, which he shares with his
son-in-law and junior partner, Mr. A. L.
Schwab, of owning the finest farms in Iron
county. These are located one and one half
miles northwest of Ironton; they embrace
four hundred and forty acres of well im-
proved, fenced land; fine barns and two good
houses.
A man of such extensive and varied busi-
ness responsibilities might be expected to
have no time for active part in politics, but
Mr. Gay is an exception. He is one of the
few Republicans to receive political honors.
He served eight years as mayor of Ironton,
then resigned that office to accept that of
representative, serving one term. In the fall
of 1910 he was elected county judge and is
still serving in that capacity.
]Mrs. Gay was Miss Lucy Logan, daughter
of Judge Logan, a prominent citizen of Iron-
ton. He was a native of Virginia, but came
to Missouri at an early age and became one
of her most esteemed citizens. He was a
prominent merchant of Ironton, a member
of the legislature and also judge of Iron
county. He died in 1886, at an advanced age,
mourned by the whole community. His
daughter grew up in Iron county and became
ilrs. W. T. Gay in 1871. Mrs. A. L. Schwab
is the only child of their marriage, but two
nieces of Mrs. Gay were brought up in the
Gay home. These were Georgia and Bell
Mufifley, of whom one. Miss Bell is now em-
ployed in Mr. Gay's store. Georgia became
the wife of Dr. Meredith, of St. Louis, and
died at the age of twenty-eight.
Mrs. Gay is a member of the Presbyterian
church. Mr. Gay's social affiliations include
the JMasonic order, in which he has taken the
R. A. M. degrees, and the Knights of Pythias.
He is rightly regarded as one of the county's
best rounded men of affairs and his popu-
larity is as unquestioned as his business
Thomas J. Rigdon, M. D. In all Kennett,
indeed in all Dunklin county, there is no
man in any walk of life who is more re-
spected and loved than Dr. Rigdon. He is
loved by old and young, by rich and poor
alike. His whole life has been spent in seek-
ing to benefit others. His one ambition has
been and still is to serve his fellow men.
His maxim is to look up, not down, to look
out, not in, but to lend a hand. His knowl-
edge of human nature has taught him to look
upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
801
anger. From the time lie was a mere lad he
has been possessed of great determination,
balanced by good, common sense. He has
made his own way in the world and knows
how to appreciate the diiSculties of a man
struggling to gain a livelihood or the student
who is trying to gain an education. Although
he is vei-y positive in his views, he is most
charitable towards the opinions of others
and does not insist that it is necessary to
think his thoughts in order to be right. In
short, he is a man whom to see is to love and
admire.
He was born near Vandalia in Fayette
county, Illinois, September 7, 1867. His
father was Thomas Rigdon, a native of
Mount Vernon, Ohio. In 1837 he came to
Illinois and in 1887 to Bollinger county, Mis-
souri, farming in both states. He married
Electa E. Nichols (born in Indiana), after
he came to Illinois, his first wife having died.
She is still living at Lutesville, Missouri,
where she is the proprietor of the Com-
mercial Hotel. He died in Bollinger county
at the age of seventy-four, while living in
Illinois. He had been active in politics and
was at one time a candidate for sheriff on
the Democratic ticket. He was defeated by
one vote. He was deputy sheriff until his
chief died. He was superintendent of the
county poor farm from 1879 until 1885, dur-
ing which time he made Avonderful improve-
ments in the farm. He was often a delegate
to the Democratic conventions, where he
always made a stand for the fair thing. He
was the second cousin of Sidney Rigdon, the
noted leader of the Jlormons and one of the
first officers of the church. About 1836, when
Thomas was twelve or thirteen years old, he
remembers that on one occasion this same
Sidney Rigdon came to visit them at Mount
Vernon, Ohio, and he never forgot the con-
versations that took place between his father
and Sidney, often lasting all night and re-
lating to the founding of the Mormon
church (to which he was bitterly opposed),
then at Kirtland, Ohio, and its proposed re-
moval to Missouri. The removal, in fact,
took place to Independence, Missouri, some
two years later. In the conversation and
arguments Sidney assured his cousin that he
was the real founder of the church and the
author of the mysterious stone plates dug
up and deciphered by Joseph Smith. Sidney
Rigdon had been a minister of the Christian
church, a convert of Alexander Campbell,
and had conceived the Mormon church as a
means of personal advancement and to make
money. Thomas Rigdon condemned him in
unmeasured terms and tried to dissuade him
from his course.
Thomas J. Rigdon spent the fii-st twenty
years of his life on his father's farm in Illi-
uois, attending the country schools in his
neighborhood. When he was twenty he went
with his parents to Bollinger county, Mis-
souri, where they moved onto another farm.
He then began to teach, believing that that
was the line of work to which he was best
adapted. While he was teaching he took a
two years' course at the State Normal Scliool;
he taught four years in Bollinger county,
one in Cape Girardeau county, coming on
January 1, 1893, to Dunklin county, where
he taught in 1894 and 1895. By this time he
had decided that he did not care to teach
any longer and he bought a drug store in
Kennett, but his abilities did not lie in the
commercial direction and he lost his stock in
six months by fire. He took his first year's
course in medicine at Louisville, Kentucky,
in 1894, and after he had to give up his drug
store he resumed his study of medicine, but
he had to teach at the same time in order
to pay for his bread and butter. In 1898 he
took the second year's course, graduating in
1900, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine
and a debt of three hundred dollars. He be-
gan to practice in Kennett, succeeding Dr.
J. W. Back, who was his preceptor in the
study of medicine and who died in August,
1900. It so happened that he had a good
practice from the very start and he has de-
voted himself wholly to his work. He is a
member of the County Medical Society, of
the Southeastern Missouri Medical Society
and of the Missouri State Medical Associa-
tion. He is an ex-president of the county
society and is its present secreta.ry. In 1906
he was elected county coroner and has held
this office ever since. He was also county
physician in 1909 and 1910, his duties being
to attend the sick at the poor farm and jail
and examine the insane, etc.
On November 17, 1901, the Doctor married
Mary Ellen King Back, widow of the late
Doctor Back mentioned above, thus succeed-
ing the old doctor in his practice and in the
affections of his widow. Mary Ellen King
was born in Bollinger county and came to
Kennett with her husband in 1892, he re-
maining in practice in Kennett until he died.
She had two children, Cora Back, who is now
the wife of S. G. Fisher, assistant cashier of
80-2
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
the Cotton Exchange Bank, and Frank Back,
a medical student at Barnes Medical College,
St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Rigdon has no chil-
dren.
In addition to the offices mentioned above,
Dr. Rigdon is also local registrar of vital
statistics for Kennett under the Bureau of
Vital Statistics of the state of Missouri. He
owns two hundred acres of land in Dunklin
county, which he took in the wild state and
he is gradually clearing it and bringing it
into a state of cultivation. He is a stock-
holder and director of the Cotton Exchange
Bank and has been connected with it in this
manner from its start. He is also a stock-
holder in the Peoples Bank of Holcomb,
Missom-i. He has always been active in poli-
tics, as delegate to state conventions, etc.
He is a member of three fraternal orders,
the Masons, Ben Hur and the Woodmen of
the World. He has been an elder in the
Christian church of Kennett for the past five
or six years. Indeed, there seems to be no
end to the different activities with which he
is connected. He was so eminently success-
tul as a teacher that it seemed as if the
pedagogical field was the one where he would
make the greatest success, but surely he is
in the right place now, where as physician,
as politician, as leader of the church, as con-
nected with banks, he fulfils each office as
if that and that alone were the work to
which he is most adapted. He has a standing
in the county that is second to none.
Robert George Ramsey, justice of the
peace at Flat River and for many years a
prominent citizen of this vicinity, was born in
Clay county, Kentucky, May 10, 1846. Since
an early age his life has been devoted to use-
ful activities, and besides the ordinary voca-
tions and responsibilities of citizenship he has
a military record gained during the Civil war,
before he had reached his majority.
His father, John Ramsey, was born in North
Carolina, and died in 1874, having followed
the occupation of farming throughout his ac-
tive career. He was a Republican and at-
tended the Baptist church. He married Char-
lotte Hubbard, of North Carolina, and they
were parents of seven children, Robert G. be-
ing the fifth.
The latter had limited schooling while he
was a boy but acquired the habits of industry
on the farm where he grew up. When he was
sixteen years old he enlisted in the Federal
army and saw four years' service iinder the
Union flag. He was a corporal in the Eighth
Kentucky Infantry and later re-enlisted in the
Fourth Kentucky.
After his return from the war he and a
cousin engaged in farming for a time, and
while a resident of Kentucky he was quite ac-
tively identified with the ministry of the Mis-
sionary Baptist church, under which denomi-
nation he preached in country churches. Mr.
Ramsey has been a resident of Missouri since
1893, and has been engaged in the grocery and
insurance business with his son. The ministry
of his church has also occupied some of his
time. During the period of Flat River's in-
corporation as a town he served three years
in the office of police judge, and since then
has been honored with the duties of justice
of the peace. Though his head is white with
the passage of .years, Judge Ramsey is still an
active citizen and holds an honored place in
his community. He is a stalwart supporter
of the Republican party, and fraternally is
a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows.
On August 1, 1866, he was married to Miss
Harriet Jane Holcomb, of Jackson county,
Kentucky. Her father, Abner Holcomb, was
a substantial farmer of that locality. Nine
children have been born of their marriage:
Charlotte B., Mrs. Chris Englenian ; Mary
Jane, Mrs. A. B. Reynolds; Martha J., Mrs.
Wyle Murrell; Laura D., Mrs. Edward Dal-
ton; Amanda, Mrs. James Coombs; Susan, de-
ceased: Charles Crittenden; Squire Harvey;
John Millard.
Sherwood T. Peter, D. D. S., is favorably
and widely known as a successful stoekgrower
and dealer of St. Clair, in which county his
citizenship has long been valued. He is all
but a native of Missouri, having come to the
commonwealth as a bo.y of six .years. He was
born in Bojde county, Kentucky, August 30,
1861. His ancestors were among the first set-
tlers of that section of the Blue Grass state
and acquired some fame as jack and mule
raisers, and what is even more important as
good and useful citizens. Thus it will be seen
that the Peter family has been engaged in
the stock raising business for a good many
generations, and they have maintained tlie
highest ideals in their particular field. Dr.
Peter's father. J. C. Peter, of St. Joe. Mis-
souri, is engaged in the stock business and he
acquired his training in this sphere of en-
deavor from his father while living in Boyle
countv. There he was born in the '30s of the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST illSSOURI
803
uineteeutli century aud there lie founded an
independent household bj' his marriage to
Eliza McDonald, a lady of Scotch extraction.
Of the eight children of their union Dr. Sher-
wood is the eldest and seven of the uiuuber
survive.
To the public schools of Missouri is Dr.
Peter indebted for his general education,
which was completed in Saint Joe, where his
parents removed when he was a youth. Be-
coming interested in dentistry he began its
study in Syracuse, Nebraska, but finished his
course in the Western Dental College of Kan-
sas City, from which he was graduated in
1892. After a few months residence and pro-
fessional work in St. Louis the Doctor came to
St. Clair and was a resident dentist there
until 1897, when he followed the westward
trend of settlement and located at Roswell.
New Mexico. He resumed his profession there
and, in fact, continued it until his real estate
interests demanded his close attention and
he found it necessary to abandon the profes-
sional field in order to become a successful
agriculturist and stockman. While in New
Mexico he acquired considerable property in-
terests, of which at an opportune moment he
disposed at a distinct advantage, and in 1909
he returned to Missouri and invested in farm
lands near the St. Louis markets and among
the friends and associates of himself and wife
in the earlier days.
The part played by Dr. Peter in the rural
activities about St. Clair has been of a bene-
ficial sort for Franklin county. He is ener-
getic and he believes in progress and his
plans include a general program of improve-
ment from the clearing of the brushy hill
lands to the rebuilding and remodeling of the
old aristocratic land marks of ante-bellum
days. He has come into possession by pur-
chase of some nine hundred acres of land
and has adopted the Angora goat method of
cleaning up the brush, an experiment which
has demonstrated a dual profit. Li truth, his
experience has convinced him of the indis-
pensable utility of the Angora in the removal
of the scrub timber and weeds from the land
and at the same time the reaping of a reason-
able profit from the clip of the animal. The
Doctor has recently purchased the old Massey
homestead in the country and the old-time
brick mansion is assuming shape as a modern
bungalow which is destined for his future
home. He is a busy man, with fine business
gifts, but he is not siifficiently engrossed in his
own affairs to be oblivious of the general in-
terests. He is public-spirited and all matters
worthy of this qualification are sure to receive
his support. He is a stanch Democrat, but
politics have never tempted him to office-
seeking.
Dr. Peter was married on the 17th day of
September, 1895, to Miss Cora J. Hibbard,
daughter of H. A. Hibbard, one of the old
merchants of this locality and a representative
of a pioneer family of this county, becoming
his wife. They have no children.
f
Dr. .Matiiias M. Reagan. The Doctor's
parents and grand-parents were natives of
Missouri, so he is a representative of the third
generation of that sturdy stock who hewed
down the prime forests, brought the land un-
der cultivation and when they had reduced
farming to a science, found opportunity to
follow other vocations, while continuing to
live the virile life of the agriculturist.
Mathias Reagan was born in Bollinger
county in 1875. His parents were C4eorge
and Malinda Reagan. After a course in the
country school ilathias Reagan entered the
Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennes-
see, and took a two years' course in medicine.
Following this he spent two .years in the
Barnes Medical School of St. Louis, grad-
uating in 1900.
After completing his medical studies. Dr.
Reagan returned to Bollinger county and
took up the practice of medicine. He makes
his home on a farm of one hundred and thirty-
two acres near Patton, Missouri, on which he
does general farming. For one year he was
postmaster at Precinct, ilissouri.
In 1899 Dr. Reagan was married to JIary
Clements, whose parents, Henry and Minnie
Clements, are natives of this state. SeVen
children have been born of their union :
Emma, in 1900 ; Ida J., in 1902 ; Lena E., in
1904, George L., in 1906 ; Jlinnie R., in 1908 ;
Willie, in 1910, and Louis, in 1911.
Dr. Reagan is a member of the Jlethodist
church and is a Republican in polities.
T. W. Read, the well known farmer in
Dunklin county, has had to work very hard
all of his life, but has now reached the point
where he can en.joy some of the fruits of his
labors. He was born in Carroll county,
Tennessee, April 22, 1863. His father was'a
farmer and in 1870 moved to Benton county
and in 1873 to Lake count.v. In 1879 Mr.
Read was taken ill, and he died in 1882. In
1885 his wife died. They were the parents of
804
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
seven children, five girls and two boys, of
whom only two are living now. T. W. and his
sister Dollie, who married AV. W. Curry and
lives on the Tom Douglas place in Dunklin
county.
Tom Read spent the first seven years of his
life in Carroll county. Tennessee, when his
parents moved to Benton county. He started
to go to school there, but in three years his
parents again moved, this time to Lake
county. He was a good student and would
have iiked to stay in school, but when he was
sixteen his father became sick and Tom and
his mother took charge of the other six chil-
dren. They lived on the little farm of thir-
teen acres and found great difficulty in mak-
ing both ends meet. After three years of
sickness the father died and three years later
the mother followed him. During the next
year Tom's sister ^Martha was married and
took the little Dollie to bring up. One of the
other sisters died during the year. Tom took
charge of the other two children and in two
years his sister mari-ied. His brother died
after seven years. Up to 1885 Tom owned
nothing but the thirteen acres which he had
inherited from his father's estate and a mule.
He had absolutely no money. In 1885 he
began to farm the bigger farm which had
been his father's, living there from 1885 to
1893, renting the farm at first, but in 1893 he
owned fifty-five acres of the land. In 1893
he came to Dunklin county, where he traded
the fifty-five acres of land which he owned
in Tennessee for the one hundred and twenty
acres a mile and three-quarters east of Ca-
ruth wliich he owns today. The one Inindred
and twenty acres was valued at thirty-four
dollars an acre. ^Ir. Read traded his fifty-five
acres for it and paid sixteen hundred dollars
in cash. In addition to this place ^Ir. Read
owns one and a half acres of land in Caruth,
where lie lives. He has a nice seven-roomed
house, which he has remodeled. On his bigger
place he has two sets of buildings, one of
which is good. He has improved the farm l>y
clearing it of timber. He has built new
fences and outbuildings. The place is now
well drained and is in much better condition
than when Mr. Read came' here. He has im-
proved some of the low land of his farm.
On December 10. 1885. ;\Ir. Read was mar-
ried to Julia A. ilauldin in Lake county,
Tennessee. She was born October 17, 1867,
and had spent all of her life in Tennessee be-
fore her marriage. She was with her hus-
band (luriui;- all of his hard times and helped
him to care for his family. They had four
children, three boys and one girl : Willie S.,
born October 30, 1886; Eva Elizabeth, born
April 2, 1888: Arthur T., born Julv 3, 1891 ;
and Melvin T.. born July 8, 1906.
ilr. Read belongs to the I\Iutual Protective
League of Caruth. He is a member of the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows of Caruth
and of the ^Yoodmeu of the World, having
been the consul commander in Caruth in the
last named order for the past four years. He
belongs to the Christian church and is a mem-
ber of the school board. He is a Democrat
and was elected in 1910 to be one of two .jus-
tices of the peace for Clay township, Dunklin
county, his term to last four years. A man
of less true calibre than ]Mr. Read would
never have made the success of his life that
he has. He has the satisfaction of knowing
that he has done his best not only for his
family, but for the people with whom he has
been brought in contact and for his county.
Charles Augustus Frederick Hemme.
Hanover, Germany, is the birthplace of Mr.
Hemme, though few born and bred Mis-
souriaus are more completely identified with
the enterprises for the welfare of Hillsboro
than the present county recorder of Jeffer-
son county.
Augustus Hemme, father of Charles A. F.
Hemme, was also born in Einbeek, Province
of Hanover. He was well educated and a
large land-owner in his native country. He
was, moreover, a scientific farmer, and the op-
portunities of the newer land of America ap-
pealed to him so much that in 1857 he came
to this country and settled in Marinetown,
]\Iadison county, Illinois. He had been mar-
ried to Regina Witteram, of Hanover.
Charles is the eldest and the only living child
of the foiir born to them. Mr. Hemme lived
but one year after coming to America, and
his wife survived him only a twelvemonth.
Born in 1843. Charles A. F. Hemme en-
.ioyed the excellent schooling of Germany un-
til he was thirteen, at which time the fam-
ily emigrated to America. He continued his
studies in this country, taking a course in
Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in
St. Louis. When he was fifteen Mr. Hemme
began to learn the carpenter's trade. After
his parents' death he made his home with
an uncle, who was in the lumber business,
and acted as clerk in his uncle's establish-
ment. When Mr. Hemme came to Jefferson
countv in 1872 he went into the business of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
805
coutrat'tiog and building, being well pre-
pared for such work by his experience in the
lumber business as well as by his knowledge
of the carpenter's trade.
]Mrs. Hemme was formerly Miss Margaret
Brill, of Ironton. She became the wife of
Mr. Hemme in 1873 and has borne him six
children. The eldest, Oscar, is dead, but the
others are all living in this vicinity. Laura
is now Mrs. William Wilson ; Verdie, the wife
of Charles Hermann; Rebecca, of Ware
Evans. Charles and Lillie are unmarried.
Mr. Hemme is an honored member of the
Republicans, who testified their appreciation
of his abilities by electing him recorder of
Jefferson county in 1906 and re-electing him
in 1910. Not only in his party, but through-
out the county and wherever he is known
Mr. Hemme enjoys the respect of all who
have dealings or acquaintance with him. He
is afSliated with the Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, of Hillsboro, Missouri, and he
and his family are members of the Congrega-
tional church.
Francis M. Vessells, M. D. During the
years which mark the professional career of
Dr. Francis M. Vessells he has met with grati-
fying success and during the period which rep-
resents his residence in Perry ville, Missouri,
he has won the good will and patronage of
many of the best citizens here. He is a thor-
ough student and endeavors to keep abreast
of the times in everything relating to the dis-
coveries in medical science. Progressive in his
ideas and favoring modern methods as a whole
he does not dispense with the time-tried sys-
tems whose value has stood the test of years.
Dr. Vessells has maintained his home and pro-
fessional headquarters in this city since 1902
and the years have told the story of an emi-
nently successful career due to the possession
of innate talent and acquired ability along the
line of his life work.
Dr. Francis Meridith Vessells was born on a
farm located on the banks of the Mississippi
river some twelve miles from Perryville. the
date of his nativity being the 3d of July. 1874.
His father was born iu the vicinity of ]\Ie-
Bride. in Perrv countv. ]\Iissouri. in the year
1837. John L. Vessells. father of the Doctor,
was reared under the invigorating influences
of the old home farm. He was a son of George
Vessells. who was at one time .iudge of the
Perry county court. The Vessells family was
originally from Kentucky, whence representa-
tives of the name removed to ^Missouri at a
very early day. John L. Vessells married Miss
Elizabeth Meridith, of Perry county, and this
uuion was prolific of six children, namely, —
Isaac, deceased; Henry B., of Perryville, Mis-
souri; John J., of Perryville, ilissouri ; Irene,
deceased: Francis M., of this notice; and
Nellie, who is Jlrs. A. C. Mercier, of Perry-
ville, Missouri. In 1885 John L. Vessells gave
up farming and retired from active partici-
pation in business affairs, removing to Perry-
ville, where he passed the closing years of his
life, his demise having occurred in the year
1894. His cherished and devoted Avife, who
long survived him, died in 1910. In politics
ciples promulgated by the Democratic party.
His wife was a member of the Baptist church.
Dr. Vessells. the imediate subject of this re-
view, received his early educational training
in the public schools of Perryville. At the
age of sixteen years he was graduated in the
Bryant & Stratton Business College at St.
Louis and subsequently he was matriculated
as a student in the Vanderbilt Medical College,
at Nashville. Tennessee, which he attended for
a period of one year, at the expiration of
which he entered the medical department of
Washington University, at St. Louis, in which
excellent institution he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1899, duly receiving
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He inau-
gurated the active practive of his profession at
Brewer, in Perry county, where he resided
for a period of two and one-half years. In
1902 he came to Perryville, where he has built
up a splendid practice and where he is recog-
nized as a skilled physician and surgeon and as
a citizen of marked loyalty and public spirit.
As a youth Dr. Vessells devoted considerable
attention to the drug business, having clerked
in a drug store from the age of sixteen to
twenty-two. He is a registered pharmacist in
Missouri, having passed the examination be-
fore the Board of Pharmacy June 20. 1898. In
1902, just after the Doctor's advent in Perry-
ville. he entered into a partnership alliance
with his brother-in-law, A. C. Mercier. to en-
gage in the drug business and they conducted
a fine establishment for the ensuing four years,
the Doctor withdrawing from the concern in
1906.
In the year 1895 Dr. Vessells was united in
marriage to Miss Lillian A. Doerr. whose birth
occurred at Perr\^lle and who is a daughter
of Augiist and ]\Iary E. (Entler") Doerr, the
father of whom is now deceased. Dr. and
'Sirs. Vessells have one son. Meridith. wliose
birth occurred on the 9th of August, 1897.
806
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .^HSSOURI
Mrs. Vessells is a woman of most gracious per-
sonality and she is deeply beloved by all who
have come within the sphere of her gentle
influence.
In politics Dr. Vessells is aligned as a stal-
wart supporter 'of the cause of the Democratic
party and while he has no time for political
preferment of any description he contributes
in generous measure to all projects advanced
for the good of the general welfare. He is a
valued and appreciative member of the Mis-
souri State Medical Society and of the Amer-
ican Medical Association in connection with
the work of his profession and by reason of
his close observance of the unwritten code of
professional ethics commands the admiration
and respect of the medical fraternity in ;\Iis-
souri. In a social way Dr. Vessells is con-
nected with the local lodges of the Modern
Brotherhood of America, the Modern Wood-
men of America, the Knights of the ^Macca-
bees and the Fratei-nal Order of Eagles. His
religious views coincide with the teachings of
the Catholic church, to whose faith he was
converted in 1910, and he is affiliated with the
Knights of Columbus. Dr. Vessells is recog-
nized as one of the leading physicians and sur-
geons in Perry county and he is everywhere
honored and esteemed for his fine manly
qualities.
George 'Washington ]\Ioothart. A busi-
ness education for those who are ambitious
to succeed in the commercial world is now
considered as necessary by those who are
factors in it themselves as a literary train-
ing for those who are bent upon profes-
sional work. It has taken years of patient
labor on the part of the educators who have
devoted themselves to this particular field
before this truth has been generally ac-
cepted by practical men and women, and to
such educators is due a large share of honor
in the remarkable material development of
the United States, which, in turn, is at the
basis of its higher civilization. In south-
eastern Missouri, George Washington
Moothart is a preeminent figure in commer-
cial education and in the past few years his
chain of schools have been the source of
supply for many reliable workers. The
schools of said chain are located at Farming-
ton, Desoto. Cape Girardeau. Bonne Terre,
Dexter and Kennett. Professor Moothart
is a man of wide and varied experience in
his line, and his enlightened methods are
proving productive of the most gratifying
results. The time has already come when
it means much to say, "a Moothart pupil."
The subject was born May 6, 1866, near
Argenta, JIacon coiinty, Illinois, and is the
son of Benjamin iloothart, who was born in
1821, in tiie state of Pennsylvania. The
elder gentleman moved from the Keystone
state to Ohio in early boyhood and after
spending forty years in the vicinity of Sid-
ney, Ohio, as one of the pioneer farmers of
that section, he removed with his family to
Illinois about the time of the outbreak of
the Civil war. He secured land in Jlacon
county and resumed farming, remaining for
the remainder of his life, his demise occur-
ring in 1908 in Cerro Gordo. Benjamin
Jloothart was twice married, first to INIiss
Elizabeth Fonts, of Sidney, Ohio, and to
their union were born six children. After
her death he married Miss Sarah Fike, of
St. Mary's, Ohio, and to this union five
ehildren'were born, Mr. Moothart being the
third in order of birth. The subject's
mother survived her beloved husband for a
very short time, her demise occurring in
Argenta, Illinois, in 1909. The father was a
Democrat, having given heart and hand to
the cause of the party since his earliest vot-
ing days and in chiirch matters he and his
wife were of the German Baptist faith.
The early education of George Washing-
ton Moothart was acquired in the common
and high schools of JIacon county, Illinois,
and, with the idea of devoting his life to the
cause of education, he entered the Normal
School at Ladoga, Indiana, and received ad-
ditional pedagogical training in the North-
ern Normal and Business University at Val-
paraiso, Indiana, the Northern Illinois
Normal School and the Business College at
Dixon, Illinois, giving particular attention
to literary, higher accounting and pen art
work. Upon beginning his actual career,
Professor Moothart taught in the public
schools of Macon county for three years and
then began his commercial work in 1890, as
principal of the business department of the
Odessa Business College at Odessa, Mis-
souri. He remained at that point about four
years, in the second year being made vice-
president of Odessa College. Upon termin-
ating his association with Odessa, Professor
Moothart became proprietor and director
of the River City Business College, at Ports-
mouth. Ohio, and he remained in charge of
this institution about four years. At the end
of that time he came to DeSoto, Missouri,
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
807
where on March 14, 1899, he organized the
first of the Moothart chain of business col-
leges, and after living at DeSoto for five
years and establishing other schools he re-
moved the headquarters of the chain to
Farmington, a rather more central situation,
and here he has ever since resided. The lo-
cation of the Moothart colleges, which are
six in number, have been noted in a preced-
ing paragraph. As the schools have grown
in importance and magnitude, it has seemed
expedient to form a corporation, the same
being perfected in 1907, Professor Moot-
hart becoming president of the corporation.
The Moothart colleges are best knoAvn
through the quality of their work, the thor-
ough, modern and up-to-date methods em-
ployed being productive of the finest results.
Almost every graduate of these institutions
are well qualified to become competent
bookkeepers, stenographers and general
office assistants. It is indeed gratifying in
this day when insincerity, greed and com-
mercialism are too often encountered that
Professor Moothart 's aims are by no means
purely of financial gain, but it is rather his
ambition to conduct a school in which stu-
dents of good habits become competent and
at the same time imbued with the idea of
success. It has been said that all Professor
Moothart 's graduates are living references.
It has been his policy to establish his schools
in small towns, for he believes in bringing
the schools to the students and in this way
many able young people are prepared who
would never go to the city, one reason being
living expenses. Then, too, their moral en-
vironment is often better. An important
consideration is the fact that no deserving
graduate of these schools is long out of a
position.
On the 27th day of December, 1904, while
residing in Portsmouth, Ohio, Professor
Moothart was luiited in marriage to !Miss
Blanche Evelyn Grosshart, of Odessa, ilis-
souri, daughter of Judge J. S. Grosshart.
The subject and his wife share their pleas-
ant home with two young sons — Warden
and "William.
In his political convictions Professor
Moothart is in harmony with such policies
and principles as are presented by the Dem-
ocratic party; his religious denomination is
Presbyterian ; and he is prominent and pop-
ular in a trio of lodges, — the Knights of
Pythias, the Modern Woodmen and the
Modern American.
F. ]\I. JoNE.s has for twenty-two years been
a teacher and a farmer. The former occupa-
tion he has practiced in Bollinger and Perry
counties and the latter in the first named
county, the place of his birth. His parents,
Francis IMarion and Nancy Susan (Burcham)
Jones, came to the county from Tennessee
shortly after their marriage and reared a
family of thirteen children, eleven of whom
lived to maturity. Mr. Jones' grandfather
was a Confederate soldier who lost his life
during the war. He had been released from
prison and was killed as he was starting
home. His father was taken prisoner and in-
carcerated for several weeks, then allowed to
return home.
F. M. Jones was born December 9, 1870,
near the town of Patton. He attended the
district schools and worked on the farm un-
til he was nineteen and then began to teach.
Since 1889 he has taught continuously. At
the death of his father in 1891 Mr. F. M.
Jones bought out the shares of the other heirs
of the home farm and since then he has
farmed the one hundred and twenty acres of
land three fourths of a mile north of Patton.
In June, 1901, ilr. Jones was united in
marriage to Miss ilary E. Hutson, daughter
of John W. Hutson, of Perry county. They
have four children: Edith Naoma, born Jan-
uary 22, 1902; Willie Edna, May 19, 190-4;
Irene Pearl, October 31, 1907; and Perry
Hutson, October 29, 1909. Both Mr. and
]\Irs. Jones belong to the lodge of the Jlodern
Brotherhood and ]\Ir. Jones is a member of
the Missionary Baptist church.
Mr. Jones has recently invented a hand
corn-shocking machine which he will put on
the market in a short time. A patent was is-
sued on this corn-shocker August 15, 1911.
D.iviD Henry ilcKExziE, M. D.. is a physi
cian of prominence in St. Francois county.
He has been in active practice at Leadwood
since 1906 and his entire career in the pro-
fession has been passed in ilissouri, in which
state he has resided since the age of three
years. He enjoys a large acquaintance and
takes a keen and active interest in the gen-
eral affairs of the day. Dr. McKenzie was
born in the troublous days of the Civil war,
the date of his nativity beins July 8, 1863,
and its scene near Riceville. Tennessee. His
father, Henry McKenzie. was born in North
Carolina in 1835. and having lost his father
at the age of four or five years was brought
up by his mother. Having been left in some-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
what destitute eircumstances, it was impos-
sible for this worthy woman to give her son
anything but a limited education. They re-
moved to Tennessee when he was a lad and
there he followed farming, and at the age
of twenty-one established an independent
household by his union with Arvezena Wells,
a native of Tennessee. To their union were
born ten children, of whom the Doctor is
the fourth in order of birth. At the time of
the war Henry McKenzie was in the govern-
ment railroad service and shortly after the
termination of the great conflict between the
states he took his wife and four children to
Missouri and located in Saint Francois coun-
ty. He remained in the county three years
and at the end of that time bought a small
farm in Iron county, near Sabula. Upon
this estate the rest of the children were born
and the Doctor with his brothers and sisters
were reared to years of usefulness and in-
dependence. And here the father died on
Christmas day, 1905, his demise losing to the
community a fine citizen, a great church
worker, a man of ideal life who did not
drink, smoke nor swear, a man of domestic
nature who found his greatest pleasure at
his own fireside in the company of his own.
He was of Scotch-Irish descent, the former
element being so evident in the name and he
embodies in himself the most admirable char-
acteristics for which that nation stands. He
was Democratic in politics and a member of
the ilethodist Episcopal church. South. The
noble wife and mother survives and now, at
the age of seventy-five years, makes her home
at Williamsville, Wayne county, with one of
her sons.
Dr. McKenzie passed his early life upon
the farm, which, if one may judge by a study
of the lives of great men, seeros to be a piece
of good fortune rather than anything else.
At the age of twenty years he began to teach
school and he continued thus employed for
nearly a decade, employing his earnings upon
his own education, a part of which he re-
ceived in the Bellview Collegiate Institute.
In looking about him for' a life work which
would fully enlist his sympathies, he decided
to become a physician and he entered the
Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville,
Kentucky, and in 1896 he received the de-
gree of M. D. AVhen it came to choosing a lo-
cation he decided upon Lesterville in Rey-
nolds county and there he practiced for ten
years, from that place removing to Lead-
wood, Missouri, in 1906. A man of signal
ability, now strengthened by a particularly
varied experience, he enjoys high standing in
the profession, and holds the confidence of
both his brethren and the laity. He is as-
sociated with those organizations calculated
to bring about the progress and unification
of the medical profession, such as the County,
Southeastern Missouri and State Medical
Associations. He does his own dispensing
and does general surgical work.
Dr. McKenzie 's wife was previous to her
marriage Margaret McNeely, of DeSoto. ;\lis-
souri, a daughter of S. E. and Emily (Wiley)
McNeely, and their union was celebrated on
the 22d day of November, 1898. They are
the parents of two boys and two girls,
namely: Marian Edna, Marvin Willard,
Plem-y Roscoe and Jessie Wells.
Dr. jMcKenzie is a stalwart supporter of
the policies and principles of the Democratic
party; his lodges are the Masonic, the Odd
Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of Amer-
ica ; and he and his wife are valued members
of the Methodist Episcopal church. South.
Their home is one of the popular ones of
Leadwood, hospitable, cultured and cheerful.
S. A. Shields. That Southeast Missouri,
and Dimklin county in particular, is the
finest country in America for the poor man is
the testimony of one of the most prosperous
farmers and prominent citizens in the vicin-
ity of Hornersville, Mr. S. A. Shields, who
has had remarkable opportunities for observa-
tion and knowledge to base this judgment
upon, since he has visited every city in the
United States and Canada of twenty thousand
population or greater.
Mr. Shields has had an interesting career.
He was born in Alabama, and from there his
father, who was a farmer, moved to Texas,
and he was reared and spent most of his
youth in Hunt county, where he attended the
country schools. At the age of seventeen he
began buying and trading stock, and ac-
quired a knowledge that has since been use-
ful to him in Dunklin county. He was a
member of a family of nine brothers, the
shortest being six feet four and the tallest
over seven feet; none weighed less than two
hundred and their average was three hun-
dred. ]Mr. Shields himself is six feet six.
The genius of public exhibitions, P. T. Bar-
num, induced this remarkable family of
brothers to join his great circus as the
' ' Texas Giants, ' ' and during 1883-4-6 four of
the brothers traveled all over the United
States and Canada, at a salary of forty dol-
lars a week for each. In 1895 Mr. Shields
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
married Mrs. Parsons, the giantess of Bar-
num's shows, she being a well formed woman
whose height was six feet seven. She died
several years after their marriage, leaving
two children, Shadrach and Paul, both at
home with their father. Jlr. and Mrs.
Shields were also with Sells & Forepaugh's
and Robinson's and Buffalo Bill's exhibitions.
Major Ray, a well known resident of Horners-
viUe, formerly of Cardwell, was a fellow-
traveler with ]\Ir. Shields in the circuses, he
and his wife being advertised as "the small-
est married couple in the world." After the
death of Mrs. Shields, ^Ir. Shields was in-
vited to spend the winter with ilajor Ray at
Cardwell, in 1902, and he liked the country so
well that he quit the circus business and has
since been identified with Dunklin county as
one of its leading farmers.
At Hornersville he was married to Miss
Bone, and he then bought his present place a
mile and a half south of Hornersville. This
farm of one hundred and thirty-seven acres
is one of the model places of this vicinity,
and he also has a tract of two hundred and
eight acres three miles west of Hornersville,
one hundred and fifty acres of which is in
cultivation. Altogether he farms about two
hundred acres, having one hundred and sixty
in cotton, also some cattle, horses and forty
or fifty hogs. He has five tenant houses on
his place west of town. The house of his
home place was burned and has been replaced
with one of the comfortable residences of this
vicinity. At Hornersville Mr. Shields buys
cotton for the East St. Louis Cotton Oil Com-
pany, and last season bought one thousand
four hundred and seventeen bales. This was
ginned at the Union Cotton Company, a stock
company in which Mr. Shields holds the prin-
cipal number of shares. Fraternally Mr.
Shields affiliates with the Honersville lodges
of the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.
George W. Scoggin. The present postmas-
ter and a prominent business man at Glover,
Missouri, is George William Scoggin, who in
addition to conducting a wholesale market for
flour, feed and provisions is also a farmer and
stockman of note. He was bom in Ruther-
ford county, North Carolina, the date of his
nativity being the 8th of October. 1847. He
is a son of Richard and ]\Iary (Dogit) Scoggin.
both of whom were likewise born in North
Carolina. Richard Scoggin was a son of Bur-
gess Scoggin and he died in the northern part
of Georgia in 1851. In the agnatic line the
Scoggin family traces its ancestry to stanch
English stock, while the maternal ancestry was
of German descent. Mary Dogit was a daugh-
ter of George Dogit, whose father, also George,
participated as a soldier in the war of the
Revolution ; he was wounded at Cowpens. The
Scoggin and Dogit families were extensive
planters and slave owners, but they never sold
any of their slaves. Mrs. Richard Scoggin
long survived her honored husband and she
came to Missouri, in company with the subject
of this review, in 1867. Her death occurred
m Texas, in 1906, at a good old age. Of her
four children. Burgess is a farmer in the vicin-
ity of Batesville, Arkansas ; Armelia died in
1883, in Wise county, Texas; Mary is the
widow of William Longly, of Wise county,
Texas ; and George W. is the immediate sub-
ject of this review.
A\'Tien a child of four years of age George
W. Scoggin accompanied his parents to Geor-
gia, where he received his early educational
training and where he remained until he had
reached his twentieth year. As a mere youth
of but fourteen years and eight months, he
enlisted for service in the Confederate army
of the Civil war, being orderly for General
Buckner, of Kentucky, for a time and later
attending General Morgan on his last raid.
He spent three years and nine months in the
army, during which time he participated in a
number of important engagements marking
the progress of the war, the same including
Stone River and Chickamauga. After his ar-
rival in Missouri, in 1867, JMr. Scoggin be-
came interested in farming and stock-raising,
in which lines of enterprise he has continued
to be engaged during the long intervening
years to the present time. He is the owner of
one hundred and sixty acres of fine farming
property in Iron county and in addition to
cultivating that tract is engaged in the whole-
sale flour, feed and provision business at
Glover. He formerly owned about one thou-
sand acres of land, which has been divided
among his children, including some six farms.
This town w-as named in honor of John M.
Glover, ex-congressman from St. Louis. For
the past twenty-one years Mr. Scoggin has
been postmaster at this place. In politics he
is a stanch Democrat and in a fraternal way
is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic
order, being a valued member of the lodge
and chapter of that organization. He and his
family are devout members of the Baptist
church, to whose good works they are liberal
contributors of their time and means.
810
HISTOEY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
In Iron county, Missouri, in 1868, was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Seoggin to
Miss Caroline Huff, who was born in Missouri
and who is a daughter of Joseph and Lavina
(Carr) Huff, natives of eastern Tennessee and
' North Carolina, respeetivelj'. Mr. and ilrs.
Huff were married in Tennessee, whence they
migrated to Missouri in 1829, locating in the
vicinity of Mine La Motte. Subsequently, in
1831, the Huff home was established at Ar-
cadia, Iron county. :\Ir. Huff entered a tract
of one hundred and sixty acres of government
land, on which he resided until his death, in
1883, at the age of seventy-five years. Mrs.
Huff was born in 1808 and passed to the life
eternal in 1903, at the patriarchal age of
ninety-five years. They were both members of
the Missionary Baptist church, in which two
of their sons and two sons-in-law were min-
isters. Joseph Huff, paternal grandfather of
Mrs. Seoggin, was a gallant soldier in the war
of 1812. He died in Missouri and is buried
near Arcadia College. James Carr, maternal
grandfather of Airs. Seoggin, was a native of
Scotland and a soldier in the English army in
his youth. As a boy he was bound out to an
uncle, but ran away to America. He was heir
to a large estate in his native land but never
took the trouble to claim the same. Of the
twelve children born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Huff, but four are living in 1911, namely, —
Mathilda, born in 1827, is the wife of John
Green and is residing in Texas; Mrs. Lovina
Oilman maintains her home at Glover; Mrs.
Nancy Robbs lives in De Soto, ^Missouri; and
Caroline is Mrs. Seoggin. Mr. and Mrs. Seog-
gin became the parents of eleven children, of
whom four are deceased. The others are:
Luther, who operates a saw mill and farm
near Glover, married Rose Druitt and has
nine children; Lena is the wife of Allison
Tims, of Little Rock, Arkansas, where Mr.
Tims is a bookkeeper, and they have three chil-
dren : Lou is the wife of John Goff, of Center-
ville, Missouri, and she is the mother of five
children; Mirt is an engineer on the Iron
Mountain Railroad in St. Louis; Carrie is the
wife of Fred Sumpter, of Flat River, ilis-
souri, and they have three children; Cura
married Albert Duparrett and resides at
Glover, and they have two children ; and ]\Iiss
Ina remains at the parental home.
Socially ^Ir. Seoggin is genial and cour-
teous, and the popularity that comes from
these qualities, as combined w-ith the distinc-
tion that comes from his achievements, makes
him a man among many. A thorough busi-
ness man, a true friend, a jolly fellow and a
gentleman, such describe the marked char-
acteristics of George W. Seoggin, who is every-
where honored and esteemed for his sterling
integrity and worth. When ]\Ir. Seoggin came
to Missouri in 1867 he had no capital except a
span of mules and a wagon, which was their
means of conveyance fi-om Georgia. He was
accompanied by his mother and sister. He is
truly a self-made man and his wife has been
a most able helpmate.
OscAB S. Florence. Great changes have
occurred in the business world in the last
fifty years and even in the last quarter of a
century. There is a tendency in all depart-
ments of labor toward specialization, and the
man who wins success and advancement is he
who is specially trained for a certain kind of
work, who has mastered his line of business
both in principle and detail, in theory and
practice, giving him a comprehensive knowl-
edge of the sub.ieet which will enable him to
meet any condition that may arise, no matter
how unexpected. Since 1889 ilr. Florence
has devoted the greater part of his time and
attention to the general merchandise business
and he is now the owner of a fine department
store at Desloge, Saint Francois county,
Missouri. In this place he is also a heavy
stockliolder and a member of the board of di-
rectors of the Citizens Bank, and he was one
of the organizers of the Flat River Bank, in
which he is a director.
A native of the great Empire of Germany,
Oscar Sherman Florence was born at Mamel,
Germany, the date of his birth being the 18th
of February, 1863. He is a son of Sherman
Florence and Paulina B. Lott, both natives of
Germany, where they passed their entire
lives. The father was a farmer and miller
by occupation and he died in 1886, his
cherished and devoted wife having passed
away in 1882. They were the parents of four
children, and of the number the subject of
this review was the fourth in order of birth.
Paulina, Lena, and Selman all are deceased,
Oscar S. being the sole survivor of the family
in 1911.
When eight years of age Oscar S. Florence
left his home place and went to school at
Hamburg, Germany, whence he subsequently
made a trip to Liverpool, England, where he
remained for a period of two years, there
working in a baker's shop. Returning to his
native land, he passed one year at Konigs-
burg, where he clerked in a grocery store,
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
811
thus early forming the foundation for his
future life work. At the aee of twenty-one
years, in 1884. he decided to try his fortunes
to his native land and the friends of his child-
in the New AVorld and after bidding farewell
hood and youth he immigrated to the United
States, landing in the harbor of Boston.
From that citj^ he proceeded to St. Louis,
Missouri, where he found employment in
stores and factories for the ensuing four
years. Thence he went to Crystal, City
where he worked for a time in a glass factory.
Subsequently he became an itinerant mer-
chant, traveling extensively with a large stock
of goods. lu^ 1889 he settled at Flucom,
Missouri, where he entered into a partner-
ship alliance with James L. Goff to conduct
a grocery business. This mutually agreeable
association lasted two years, at the expiration
of which Mr. Florence went to Valle ilines,
where he purchased a lead prospect and
where he achieved a marvelous success by
conducting a grocery store in addition to
opening his lead claim. From Valle Mines
Mr. Florence removed to Desloge, where he
opened a small store, known as the Company
store, but conducted by the firm of Goff &
Florence for some twelve years. In 1901
Messrs. Goff and Florence dissolved partner-
ship and the former is now conducting a drug
store at Desloge. On other pages of this work
is a sketch dedicated to the career of ]Mr.
Goff, one of the old pioneer citizens of this
section of the state. Since 1901 Mr. Florence
has continued the grocery business individ-
ually and he now owns a modern and well
equipped department store, which covers the
space of four ordinary stores, its building be-
ing one hundred by eighty feet in lateral
dimensions. This store has won recognition
as the largest and best establishment in the
lead belt. In addition to his other interests
he is a stockholder in the Citizens Bank at
Desloge, in which he is also a director. In
1903 he was instrumental in the organization
of the Flat River Bank, in which he is a mem-
ber of the board of directors.
Mr. Florence has gained distinctive pres-
tige as one of the most enterprising citizens
of Desloge, where he is a man of prominence
and influence in all the walks of life. In
polities he is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks
of the Republican party and, while he has
never participated actively in public att'airs,
he is ever on the alert to advance measures
and enterprises projected for the good of the
general welfare. He is not formally con-
nected with any religious organization but
gives his support to the Methodist Episcopal
church, of which his wife was a devout and
valued member prior to her death. In fra-
ternal circles Jlr. Florence is affiliated with
a number of represenative orders of a local
nature and as a man he is genial in his as-
sociations, his affability gaining to him the
friendship and esteem of all with whom he
has come in contact. Mr. Florence became a
naturalized citizen of the United States while
a resident of Flucom, in the year 1889, just
five years after his an-ival in this country.
At Valle Mines, Missouri, in the year 1890,
Mr. Florence was united in marriage to Miss
Carrie M. Goodin, a native of Valle Mines,
Missouri, and a daughter of Austin Goodin,
long a representative farmer at Primrose,
i\Iissouri. Air. and Mrs. Florence became the
parents of two children, — Lena, whose birth
occurred on the 13th of January, 1893 ; and
Lon A. born on the 25th of February, 1895.
The daughter is a member of the Third Bap-
tist church of St. Louis. Both children have
been afforded excellent educational advant-
ages and they remain at the paternal home,
ilrs. Florence was called to eternal rest on
the 12th of July, 1905. She was a woman of
most gracious personality and was deeply be-
loved by a wide circle of affectionate and ad-
miring friends, all of whom mourn her loss.
Albert L.\ne, M. D. The world instinct-
ively and justly renders deference to the
man whose success in life has been worthily
achieved, who has attained a competence by
honorable methods, and whose high reputa-
tion is solely the result of preeminent merit
in his chosen profession. We pay a deserv-
edly high tribute to the heroes who on the
bloody battle-fields of war win glorious vic-
tories and display their invincible courage,
but we perhaps fail to realize that just as
much courage and skill are required to wage
the bloodless conflicts of civil life. Especial-
ly in the arduous career of a physician are
required all the qualities which go to make
up the ideal soldier — courage, daring, self-
control, and the keen judgment necessary to
make an instant decision when life itself is
at stake. Absolute indift'erence to physical
comfort as contrasted with his duty, com-
bined with a hardy frame and a complete
knowledge of his profession ; these they must
have in common, but the physician must add
to all these the divine gift of sympathy and
a personal magnetism which often does more
812
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
for his patients than medicine. Not only is
Dr. Lane of this high type of physician, but
he is an ideal citizen in every wa.v, public-
spirited in a fashion which finds its expres-
sion in deeds rather than words, — in short,
a builder. At the present time he is an im-
portant factor in the mercantile and banking
as well as the professional world.
Dr. Lane is one of the old residents of
Sullivan and his residence in Franklin coun-
ty dates from the year 1852, at which date
his parents came hither from Fredericks-
burg, Virginia. At that historic point in the
Old Dominion the Doctor was born August
16, 1844. On the paternal side Dr. Lane
comes of Protestant Scotch-Irish stock and
upon the maternal, of pure Scotch. His
father was Fountain H. Lane and the maiden
name of his mother was Jennie Briggs, her
father having left the "land 'o cakes" to
seek new fortunes on this side of the At-
lantic. The paternal grandfather, Richard
Lane, was a slave-holding planter of Spott-
sylvania county, Virginia, who died about the
year 1848. His son, Fountain H., father of
the immediate subject of this record, was
born in the '90s of the eighteenth century.
Fountain H. Lane's life was shaped upon his
father's plantation and he was a youth at
the outbreak of the war of 1812. A gallant
young fellow, he enlisted in the United States
army and served under General Cogburn, re-
ceiving a land warrant from the govern-
ment as a bonus for his soldier service. When
he came to Missouri he located near New
Haven in Franklin county and devoted him-
self to agricultural pursuits, his demise oc-
curring in 1872, some nineteen years after
the death of his wife. At the time of the
Civil war he was an avowed believer in the
right of the states to sever their connection
with the national government, and in politi-
cal conviction he was first a Whig and then a
Democrat.
The children of Fountain and Jennie
(Briggs) Lane were: Richard, who died in
Osage county, Missouri, leaving a family;
Rebecca, who married Ludwell Herndon in
Virginia, and is now deceased; William, who
resides in Comanche coiinty, Texas, as does
Alexander; Margaret, who married in 1863
a Mr. Bridges, of Osage county. Missouri, and
is deceased ; Albert L. ; Jesse, who spent his
life in Osage county, Missouri, and there left
a family at death : and Joseph, the youngest
child, a resident of Comanche county, Texas.
Albert remained upon his father's farm
until about the attainment of his majority,
and while still sheltered beneath the parental
roof-tree he came to a decision as to his pro-
fession. He first took up the study of med-
icine in New Haven, Missouri, his preceptors
being Dr. J. S. Hyde and Dr. H. S. Gilbert
and he subsequently became a student of the
Missouri ]\Iedical College, where he received
a well-earned degree on February 18, 1865.
In the following year he established himself
in Sullivan, Missoui-i, as the pioneer physi-
cian, and for several years was without a
professional colleague. He practiced here for
forty-five years without a break and drifted
into business as opportunity offered.
For the past fifteen years Dr. Lane has
been interested in merchandise. He was the
chief partner in the general mercantile firm
of the Clark-Lane IMercantile Company, of
which he is now practically the sole owner.
He spent his earnings in his profession as q
substantial builder of Sullivan and today is
one of the large property owners. Some of
the best buildings in the city are due to his
progressiveness and initiative. He built the
large three-story business house of the Clark-
Lane firm; the brick double store of the Wil-
liams and Clark hardware store; he was one
of the promoters of the Sullivan Milling
Company, and its president; he built the
Commercial Hotel and the new Peoples'
Bank OfSce ; and interspersed in the residence
district are many commodious cottages which
bi'ing him an income of no inconsiderable
proportions. His own substantial stone resi-
dence reflects from its exterior the substan-
tial character of its owner.
Dr. Lane entered the domain of finance
when he aided in the promotion of the Bank
of Sullivan, being chosen its president and
acting in such capacity for several years. He
took a large interest in the organization of
the Peoples' Bank here in 1894 and is its
president today. He has shown marked dis-
crimination in the management of the affairs
of the bank and the pei'sonal integrity and
high standing of the interested principals in
the institution constitute its most valuable as-
set and give assurance of its continued
growth and prosperity.
In May, 1868, Dr. Lane established an in-
dependent household by marriage, his chosen
lady being Miss Jennie C. Clark, daughter of
Rev. Jacob Clark, a Presbyterian minister,
who came to Sullivan from South Carolina.
Mrs. Lane passed away in 1888, the mother
of Meredith B. Lane, manager of the Clark-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
813
Lane Mercantile Company; and of J. Agnes,
now Mrs. Leonard, of San Francisco, Cal-
ifornia, who was reared and educated by her
aunt, Mre. Hearst, wife of Senator George
Hearst, and who still remains near her dis-
tinguished relative.
Dr. Lane is a Democrat in his political
convictions, but takes no greater interest in
politics than that of the intelligent voter.
He is a Blue Lodge ilason and is very popu-
lar in the time-honored order. He is, in fact,
a popular citizen, his useful, helpful life and
commendable characteristics, combined with
a genial manner, having won for him a host
of friends.
WaLiAM G. Bragg. There is no man in
all Dimklin county who has gained more
prominence than William G. Bragg, the man
who never let himself be discouraged.
There is no kind of a man that nature hates
so much as a quitter. The start in life is
like a horse race, where opporttmity is
equal. The racers are all bunched at the
first turn, but from there they begin to scat-
ter. At the second turn two stop and two
are seen forging ahead. There is still a
goodly bunch to be seen from the grand
stand and individuals cannot be distin-
guished. At the third turn the bunch has
elongated itself to a single file and each in-
dividual can be seen. Several have "done
quit." As the leaders turn into the home
stretch you see only two horses out of the
dozen that started. These two come on with
a steady, sustained patter of hoofs, one .just
a length behind the other. They keep their
places until within a hundred yards of the
wire, when the horse that is behind seems
to let out an extra link and he forges ahead
and comes in under the wire, an easy win-
ner by two lengths. With men as with
horses the supreme test is the ability to stay
in and to give the extra burst of power
when it is required, thus qualifying to start
in a higher contest. Mr. Bragg is one of the
kind who has won out in all the different
heats of life's battle. He has had staying
qualities and come out victorious.
He was born in Knox county, Missouri,
September 21, 1852, the son of Captain Will-
iam G. Bragg, Senior, who was a native of
Virginia, having been born there March 4,
1811. As a child he was taken by his par-
ents to Kentucky, where they located.
William was educated and he there married
Fanny Tully, a young girl who was a native
of Kentucky. Soon after their marriage
thej' moved to Missouri, in 1838. They set-
tled in Knox county, staying there until
1865. They cultivated some wild land, mak-
ing many improvements and then engaged
in the general merchandise business until
the war broke out. I\Ir. Bragg raised a com-
pany for the state militia, but very early in
the war they were captured in Missouri by
General Porter. Mr. Bragg, now having the
title of captain, was paroled, but not being
exchanged he saw no further service in the
war. His son, Leonard T. Bragg, had en-
li.sted in the Federal army with the Second
Missouri Division; he had come with this
''ompany through southeastern Missouri
and they were stationed at Bloomfield tmtil
the close of the war. Leonard T. Bragg was
made circuit clerk and county clerk for
Dunklin county during the reconstructive
period; he took office in 1865, his father
coming to assist him in the office. At the
end of the term L. T. Bragg was re-elected,
serving one year longer. At the end of
that term L. T. Bragg resigned and
the Captain was appointed by the Governor
to succeed his son, who then went out west
to Oregon. The Captain then held the
offices of circuit clerk, county clerk, probate
clerk and county recorder all at one time.
At the end of his term he went into the gen-
eral merchandise business, running his
general store for several years. He also
operated a hotel in his private home. He
was active until his death, in his seventy-
eighth year, in 1888. He did not consider
himself a politician, though he was a Repub-
lican and had served in public capacities.
His closest friends were found amongst the
Democrats, as in the case of his son Leonard
T., who although a Republican was elected
by Democratic votes. When the Bragg fam-
ily first came to Kennett. in 1865. they came
down the Mississippi river to Cape Girar-
deau, where a two horse wagon met them,
that being the only two horse wagon in the
whole county. On their journey to Kennett
they met and passed ox teams in plenty, but
no horse wagons. For a long time after this
when any of the family had occasion to go
from Kennett to Cape Girardeau they used
ox teams, sometimes taking eighteen days
to make the trip. All goods had to come by
Cape Girardeau, so it was necessaiy for
them to make periodical trips there. The
Captain was an active member of the Chris-
tian church, helping in any way that was
814
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
possible, giving money and time for the sup-
port of its various enterprises, ilrs. Bragg
died at the age of fifty-seven, having borne
twelve children, those besides William G. be-
ing: ]\Iary E.. who is now the widow of Col-
onel Solomon G. Kite-hen and is living in the
state of Washington. Leonard T. has been
in the flouring mill business at Colfax,
Washington. He is now retired, ilartha H.
married John C. Towson, a manufacturer
living at Sikeston, Missouri. Bettie is the
widow of Edward B. Sturgis, who was a
merchant at Kennett. Anna married Benja-
min T. Walker and she died young. Ruth
B. married Dr. N. F. Kelley, late of Kennett.
She died in Kennett. Cornelia V. married
Dr. A. B. IMobley. who died January 21,
1911, she having died some years ago. Eva
M. is the wife of A. J. Sellers, of Arkansas ;
he is her second husband, she having first
married the Honorable James P. Walker,
ex-member of congress, late of Dexter, ]Mis-
souri. Lillian F. married James F. Tatum,
an old established merchant at Kennett,
now dead. She still lives at Kennett. Con-
stance married Frank Sanders. She died
young, leaving two sons and one daughter,
one of whom, Robert, is assistant cashier in
the Bank of Kennett. Robert Bruce is the
youngest of this large and interesting fam-
ily. When he was a young man he went to
Oregon, where he became a merchant at
Hood Rim, Oregon.
William G. Bragg was only thirteen years
old when the family first came to Kennett,
but he even then began to show of what
stuff he was made. He worked in his
father's store and also worked for others.
In 1879 he opened a general store of his
o-^vn, continuing in the merchandise business
for about twenty years. In 1882 he was
elected clerk of circuit court and recorder
of deeds, offices which his brother and his
father had both held. At the end of his
term he was re-elected on the Democratic
ticket. After the close of his second term
he went back to the merchandise business,
in which he continued until 1893. During
this time he went out to the state of Wash-
ington, where he engaged in the real estate
business at Pullman for two years. He is
now in the real estate and insurance busi-
ness at Kennett, where he handles his own
property very largely, buying and selling
farm lands and city land. He has laid out
additions to Kennett, one called the Bragg
Addition in his honor; here he sells and
builds on easy terms. Mr. Bragg has always
been a staunch Democrat, but he does not
concern himself with politics any more.
He has served as delegate to various con-
ventions and served his party in other ways.
He is, however, not the less interested in the
county.
On May 3, 1877, he married Kittie V.
Chapman, of Grand Prairie, eight miles
south of Kennett. She is the daughter of
Mrs. W. H. Helm, who was born at Hickman
in Kentucky and came to ^lissouri as ilrs.
Chapman in 1852 and soon afterward she
married W. H. Helm, a native of Tennessee,
who came to Missouri from Arkansas dur-
ing the war. Kittie V., now Mrs. Bragg,
was only an infant when her mother
brought her to Missouri. At that time Ken-
nett had very few people, so that ilrs. Helm
and her daughter are among the oldest resi-
dents of Dunklin county. Mrs. Helm saw
the country in its primitive condition and
has watched its progress with the deepest
interest. Sidney Douglas, well known in
Kennett, is a grand-nephew of Mrs. Helm,
his father's mother being a sister to Mrs.
Helm. Mrs. Helm has been a member of the
Church of Christ in Kennett for over fifty
years. She had the misfortune to lose her
second husband after about thirty years of
wedded life. Mr. and Mrs. William G.
Bragg have one son, William Ballard, aged
thirteen, now attending school.
Mr. Bragg can lay claim to being the old-
est male resident in Kennett, as there is not
a house standing nor a person living here
who was in Kennett when he came here in
1865. He and his wife are both members
of the Christian church, which would suffer
greatly if it did not have the help of the
Bragg family. Surely Mr. Bragg has lived
a life full of usefulness. He has kept right
on in the race of life, one of the leaders
throughout. He has not yet reached the last
goal, but has time for more efforts. He
shoAvs no sign of loss of interest in any of
the things he has always taken such an ac-
tive part in, but we believe will keep right
on to the end and will gain the reward he
so merits, the words of commendation,
"well done."
Frederick Kaths. The state of Prussia has
contributed lavishly to the strengtii of Amer-
ica and the career of Mr. Frederick Kaths is a
distinguished example of what the tireless in-
dustry, skilled workmanship and sound ,indg-
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
S15
ment as well as initiative in business, wliich
the German stock bring to this land, can ac-
complish in a country so rich in opportunitj'
as Iron county.
Mr. Kaths was born in Prussia, Germany,
October 22, 1834. His father, Herman Kaths,
was a broad-cloth weaver by trade. Both of
his parents died in Germany while Frederick
was a small child. There were nine children
in the Kaths family, one of wliom, Herman, is
still living at the age of eighty-four years.
He resides in East St. Louis and has spent
an active life devoted to mining and other
pursuits. Frederick Kaths received the com-
mon school education in Germany and learned
the trade of shoe-maker. At the age of
twenty-two, in 1856, he came to America,
landing at New Orleans. He had no funds,
but possessed the more valuable equipment of
health and ambition. He worked at his trade
of shoe-maker some ten or twelve years. He
remained in New Orleans only one year
and in April, 1857. came north to j\Iis-
souri by steamboat to Iron county, where
he had friends with whom he had been
corresponding. In Missouri he continued to
follow his trade and in 1860 started in the mer-
cantile business. The year previous, in 1859,
Mr. Kaths went from the Belleview Valley,
Missouri, with a party with ox-teams and pros-
pected and mined in Colorado, in the vicin-
ity of Pike's Peak, during the summer. He
conducted a saloon in Pilot Knob and worked
at his trade in Fredericktown. After ten
years he bought an interest in the Ironton
Manufacturing & jMilling Company and was
active in that business for several years.
Milling continued to be one of his chief enter-
prises until 1885. ^Meantime he was enter-
ing into other pursuits.
He opened a store at Graniteville in part-
nership with ]Mr. John Schwab, a man of con-
spicuous business sagacity, who died in the
summer of 1911. Mr. Kaths and Mr. Schwab
carried on the store together for several years,
and then Mr. Schwab bought out his part-
ner's interest. During this time Mr. Kaths
had bought and sold considerable land and
also engaged in the mining business for sev-
eral years. One of his recent transactions was
the sale of the land to the Epworth Methodist
Association. The tract is beautifullv located
and is about two hundred and forty-five acres
in extent. Mr. Kaths has retired from busi-
ness now and is the owner of large real estate
interests in Ironton and in Pilot Knob where
he has resided since 1860. His beautiful
home in that city, with its many improve-
ments, is not the least valuable of his many
holdings.
Like her husband, Jlrs. Kaths is a native
of Prussia. Her family came to America
three years before Mr. Kaths' arrival. Her
maiden name was Dorothy C. Romer. Her
father, Theodore Romer, was a miner at Mine
La JMotte, operating the mine on a royalty
basis. Later he removed to Pilot Knob, where
he resided until his death. Mrs. Kaths is now
about sixty-seven years old.
Six sons and three daughters were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Kaths. Two of the sons are
dead and of the four remaining three live in
Kansas. Ferdinand is engaged in the bank-
ing business at Stafford, Kansas. Frederick
W. is with the Larrabee Milling Company of
Hutchison, Kansas. This company is an im-
mense corporation and their plant at Hutch-
ison has an output of two thousand barrels a
day. Herbert A. is also engaged in banking
business, but in Turon, Kansas. William,
just older than Herbert, is in the U. S. mail
service at Little Rock, Arkansas. Frederick
W. is the only one of the sons who is mar-
ried. Of the daughters. Miss Annie resides
at the home in Pilot Knob with her parents.
Mrs. Hinsdale, nee Augusta Kaths, has her
home in Pilot Knob also. Emma, the wife
of Dr. Blanks, lives in Mexico, ]\Iissouri. Mrs.
Hinsdale has two daughters and Mrs. Blanks,
one.
Mr. Kaths is a Republican in politics. So-
cially he is a member of the Masonic lodge
of Ironton. In this ancient fraternity, he en-
joys the distinction of being probably the old-
est mason in Iron county, as he was taken into
the lodge in about 1862. Mrs. Kaths is a mem-
ber of the Lutheran church.
NoFFLiT Jones Wagster, Sr. A large pro-
portion of our population are farmers. Nofflit
J. Wagster, a successful farmer of Caruth,
was born in Hornersville, Dunklin county,
October 31. 1859. He is the son of Crit-
tenden and Kiddy (Jones) Wagster. ^Ir.
Wagster died in 1866, and his wife in 1897.
He had been a merchant and a farmer all of
his life. He was born in Tennessee and was
reared and married there, coming to Dunklin
county, ilissouri, in 1846. He and ilr. R. H.
Douglass were in the general merchandise
business at Hornersville. under the firm name
of Wagster and Douglass. Mr. C. Wagster
owned some five acres of land on the present
site of the business portion of Hornersville,
816
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
aud he was successful in his operations. He
was a Democrat and served as sheriff of Obion
county, Tennessee. Mrs. Wagster was a native
of South Carolina.
Nofflit J. was brought up on his father's
farm, going to the country school as soon
as he was old enough. He then went to
the public school at Arcadia, Iron county, Mis-
souri, for two years and to the state normal
at Cape Girardeau for one j'ear. After he
had finished his school education he went to
Denver, Colorado, where he worked in a sales
stable of Wall and Winter. He secured an
interest in the business, but at the close of one
year's work he sold out and returned home,
no better off than when he went except for
the year's experience, which was worth some-
tliing to him. He started in farming in Dunk-
lin coiTnty. buying twenty-one acres of land
on time, selling the mule out of the harness to
pay the cash deposit. His farm was on Horse
Island and at the end of four years of hard
work he bought forty-two more acres on the
same island and built a house, in which he
lived for five years, at the expiration of which
time he bought another tract of sixty acres on
credit, having paid for the rest of the land by
this time. He had at one time in all one hun-
dred and eleven acres, which he sold at a
good profit. He took his money and went to
Oklahoma, locating twenty-six miles west of
Oklahoma City, where he bought one hundred
an^ sixty acres of prairie land. After living
there for three years he sold the land for two
thousand dollars more than he paid for it.
He owned some property in El Reno, Okla-
homa, until recently when he sold. He came
back to Missouri, bought one hundred and
twenty acres of land at Caruth, January 1,
1910, and he has since that time bought an-
other twenty acres of land, the entire tract
meaning an investment of thirteen thousand
dollars. Corn and cotton are its main crops.
On ]\rav 9, 1888, soon after Mr. Wagster
cnme back from Denver, he married Elnora
Hoffman at Cotton Plant. On December 11,
1899, their dausrhter Pearl was born. She
lives at home with her father. On April 11,
1908. Pearl's mother died, and on December
11. 1910. he married Miss Melissa Miles.
]\Tr. Wagster was a member for years of the
IMethodist Er>iscopal church. Tatnm's Chapel,
on Horse Island. He also belongs to the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the Wood-
men of the World and the Rebekah Lnd^e, all
of Caruth. He is a member of the Farmers'
Union and one of its staunchest supporters.
In political belief he is a Democrat. Mr. Wag-
ster is very well liked in the county, for one
reason because he is always ready to lend a
helping hand to any one who is struggling to
make his way in life. He has had a hard time
himself, but has had no help from any one
and all that he did was through sheer hard
work. His father died when he was six years
old, so that there was no help from that source.
He has, however, always been successful, ex-
cept during the year he went to Colorado. He
had to borrow money to marry his first wife,
but has made money since that time. He is
improving his house and outbuildings and has
put up fences, now owning a very fine farm.
For the most part he grows cotton, this year
(1911) having planted cotton on over one hun-
dred acres, but he grows some corn also.
Some men who have made their way alone
are not willing to help others, they think that
what they themselves have done others can
do, but it is not so with Mr. Wagster. He is
anxious to keep others from experiencing the
difficulties he has overcome and never misses
an opportunity to help, as far as his means
will allow.
John Butler. An oculist and aurist of
high reputation and large practice. Dr. John
Butler, of Blackwell, is a stanch Missourian
by birth, education, professional training and
decided preference. Born in Salem, Dent
county, Missouri, October 18, 1863, he laid
the foundation of his education in the piiblic
schools of that place, and after graduating
from its high school he spent four years in
teaching. During the latter period he read
medicine and studied pharmacy, spending his
so-called vacations as an employe in various
drug stores. After four years of active ex-
perience in the drug business he obtained his
state certificate of pharmacy (in 1889).
The foregoing experience and study
formed a solid foundation for Dr. Butler's
medical studies and practice, and in 1890 he
was matriculated at the IMissouri Medical
College, St. Louis, but obtained his degree, in
1892, from the Beaumont Hospital and IMed-
ieal College and began practice at Oak Hill,
Crawford county. There he remained active
in professional work for the succeeding six
years ; then practiced in St. Louis until 1906,
since which year he has been a resident phy-
sician of Blacksvell, devoted to the delicate
and intricate specialties of treating affections
of the e.ye and ear.
In the prosecution of these specialties, the
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
817
Doctor has enjoyed a thorough training, both
in theory and practice. While in St. Louis
he pursued a post-graduate course of fifteen
months in the medical school of the Washing-
ton University, and for a year and a half
served upon the attending staff of the Oph-
thalmic Dispensary of that city. While Dr.
Butler makes a specialty of diagnosing and
treating diseases of the eye and ear, he is a
skilled general physician and surgeon with
a large and increasing clientele. His practice
in St. Louis was of the most encouraging na-
ture, but he was obliged to leave the larger
city on account of a chronic throat affection,
which necessitates a residence in a wooded
district of pure air and invigorating sui--
roundings ; all of these requirements are met
at Blackwell and vicinity, so that he is now
both on the highway to health, with a splendid
record behind him, and the promise of even a
brighter future. He is a thorough student,
skilled in practice, sociable, popular and a
representative citizen; specifically, also, he is
a Democrat, affiliated with the IMaccabees and
Modern Woodmen of America, and member
of the Christian church.
In 1891: Dr. Butler was married to Miss
Emma ^Ia3' Miller, of St. Louis, and the chil-
dren born to them have been Mon-is Frank-
lin, Prances Naomi, Julia ]May, Raymond
Clinton and Russell Manning Biitler.
Edward A. Rozier. Among the distinct-
ively prominent and brilliant lawyers of the
state of Missouri none is more versatile, tal-
ented or well equipped for the work of his
profession than Edward Amabel Rozier, who
maintains his home and business head-
quarters at Parmington, ^Missouri. Through-
out his career as an able attorney and well
fortified counselor he has, by reason of unim-
peachable conduct and close observance of
the unwritten code of professional ethics,
gained the admiration and respect of his fel-
low members of the bar, in addition to which
he commands a high place in the confidence
and esteem of his fellow citizens.
Edward Amabel Rozier was born at St.
Genevieve, ]\Iissouri, on the 9th of December,
1857, and he is a son of Edward A. Rozier,
Sr., who was likewise born at St, Genevieve,
the year of his nativit.v having been 1831,
The father was educated in the parochial
schools of St. Genevieve and at the "Bar-
rens" in Perrj^ille. In 1849 he made the
overland trip to California with a Darty of
enthusiastic "Porty-niners," returning east
via the Isthmus of Panama and landing in
the city of New Orleans, where he remained
lor some time, studying law under the able
preceptorship of his brother. In 1851 he re-
turned to St. Genevieve, this state, where he
initiated the active practice of his profession
and where for a time he was editor of the
Plain Dealer, an early newspaper in this
section of the countrj'. He married Miss
Lavinia Skewes and they became the parents
of two children, William Skewes Rozier, who
died at the age of twenty-six 3'ears, being at
that time a very successful lawyer, and Ed-
ward A.. Jr., the immediate subject of this
review. During his shoi-t but brilliant career
William S. Rozier made a very fine name for
himself, having become widely renowned as
an exceptionally gifted speaker. The father
was summoned to the life eternal in the year
1857, at the very early age of twenty-six
.years. Mrs. Rozier long survived her hon-
ored husband and she passed away in 1903,
at the age of sixty-six years.
To the public schools of his native place
Edward A. Rozier, of this review, is indebted
for his preliminary educational discipline,
which training was later supplemented by a
course in the University of Missouri, at
Columbia. As a young man he decided upon
the legal profession as his life work and with
that object in view he began to read law in
the office of J. B. Robbins, of Perry county,
Missouri. So rapid v.-as his progress in the
absorption and assimilation of the science of
jurisprudence that he was admitted to the
Missouri bar in 1878, at the early age of
twenty years. He immediately opened of-
fices at St. Genevieve, where he succeeded in
working up a large and representative client-
age and where on three different occasions
he was elected prosecuting attorney of St,
Genevieve county. In 1898 he was appointed
United States district attorney at St. Louis
and he served in that capacity with all of
honor and distinction for a period of four
years, at the expiration of which, in 1902, he
located at Parmington, where he has since
resided and where he is accorded recognition
as one of the leading lawyers of southeastern
Missouri. On two different occasions Mr.
Rozier was regent of the Cape Girardeau
Normal School and he has always manifested
a very deep and sincere interest in educa-
tional affairs and in the youth of the land.
He is very active and exceedingly successful
as a lawyer and in connection with his legal
work is affiliated with a number of representa-
818
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
'tive bar associations. In polities he accords
an uncompromising allegiance to the prin-
ciples and policies for which the Republican
party stands sponsor and he is unusually ac-
tive in the work of that organization in this
section of the state. In a fraternal way he
is a valued member of the local lodge of the
Knights of Pythias and he is also connected
with the Commercial Club of Farmington, of
which he is president.
On the 3d of May, 1881, Mr. Rozier was
united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Carlisle,
of St. Genevieve. To this union have been
born three children, concerning whom the
following brief data are here incorporated, —
Gladys is the wife of Paul B. Leming, of
Cape Girardeau; Carlisle is assistant county
clerk at Cape Girardeau ; and Lavinia re-
mains at home. In religious faith the family
are consistent members of the Catholic church
and they are prominent factors in connection
with the best social activities of Farmington,
where their large and attractive home is the
scene of many happy social gatherings.
Arthur 0. Conrad., If, as the sage says,
it is worthy of immortality to make two
blades of grass grow where onlj^ one grew be-
fore, surely the man who makes two bushels
of wheat grow where but one was harvested
before is to be ranked high in the roll of the
soldiers of industry. Arthur O. Conrad has
the honor of raising the record crop of wheat
in southeast Missouri. On a plot of thirteen
acres the yield was three hundred and eighty-
seven bushels. Needless to sa.v, he is one of
the successful farmers of the region.
]\Ir. Arthur Conrad is one of the twelve
children of Peter R. Conrad, and his dis-
tinguished ancestry, as well as the names of
his brothers and sisters, will be found in the
account of his father's life. Arthur was born
February 2, 1877, in Bollinger county, and
with the exception of a few years spent in
California he has remained all his life on a
farm in its borders.
In February, 1906, Mr. Conrad purchased
one hundred and ninety-three acres of land
on Whitewater creek. This was formerly the
John I. Conrad farm. Eighty acres of it are
in cultivation and the rest in timber and
pasture land. Besides his crops, Jlr. Conrad
raises some cattle, hogs and sheep. About
half a year before buying this farm, on
August 31, 1005, the marriage of Arthur
Conrad and Ida, daughter of Thomas and
Sophia Murray, was solemnized. At the
time of the wedding the Murray family were
residents of Perry county, but their home is
now in Bollinger county. There have been
four children born of this union, one of whom
died in infancy. The others are Meda Pearl,
born August 26, 1906; Myron Murray, Feb-
ruary 7, 1909; and Milton Glen, November
28, 1910.
Like the most of the Conrads, Mr. Arthur
is a member of the Presbyterian church.
Bert Sumpter. Although Bert Sumpter,
postmaster at Leadwood, is only a short way
past his majority, he has already manifested
sufficient force of character, ability and good
citizenship to entitle him to high and definite
standing in the community. He is a native
born to the great state of ^lissouri, his birth
having occurred at Lesterville, Reynolds
county. May 27, 1888. His father, Reuben V
Sumpter, who was born in the year 1847. and
who claims Iron county as the district of his
nativity is a man of honor in his commiinity
and a veteran of the Civil war. He passed his
early life upon the farm, becoming like most
farmers' sons familiar with the many phases
of seed time and harvest. Although only
about fifteen years of age when tlie first guns
were fired at Fort Sumter, he enlisted as soon
as accepted, his sympathies being with the
preservation of the integrity of the Union. He
wore the blue as a member of a IMissouri regi-
ment. When peace returned to a devastated
land, Mr. Sumpter, senior, returned to his
home and soon after married ilary J. Gog-
gins, a young woman born in Reynolds county,
Missouri, becoming his wife. To their union
six children were born, Bert, of this review,
being the eldest in order of birth. The father
and mother reside in the vicinity of Elvins
and the former is engaged in agriculture
The elder gentleman gives heart and hand to
the Republican party, to whose policies and
principles he has ever been devoted, and he
and his wife are zealous members of the
Baptist church, doing all in their power to
assist in its campaigns for righteousness. He
is a JTason and is thoroughly in sympathy
with the principles of moral and social jus-
tice and altruism for which the time-honored
frateraity stands.
Bert Sumpter spent his early life in Rev
nolds county and received his education in
the public schools provided by the same. Af-
ter finishing school he worked for a time
upon the farm and, if experience and ability
-xa injssaoons b aq pjnoo 'jqSnB joj jnnoD
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
819
ponent of the great basic industry if he so
desired. His tastes lie, however, in other di-
rections, and in 1905, he left the parental
roof-tree and came to Elvins, iMissouri, where
he secured work in the mines and continued
thus employed until 1909. In that year he
entered the post office at Elvins as assistant
postmaster, continuing until March, 1911, .
when he came to Leadwood and was assistant
postmaster here until Julj' 2i, 1911, at which
time he was appointed postmaster. He has
proved faithful and efficient.
Mr. Sumpter was happily married when on
the 2d day of January, 1910, he was united
to Prona Tucker, of Ironton, Mrs. Sumpter
being a daughter of W. D. and Cynthia
(Johnston) Tucker. The subject is a Repub-
lican and is ever ready to do all in his power
for the success of his party. He is a mem-
ber of the Baptist church and belongs to the
C. of H. Lodge.
Fayette Parsons Graves, the secretary
and a director of the Doe Run Lead Com-
pany and until recently active manager of
that important industry, is one of the best
known citizens of the lead belt. He began
his business career here over forty years ago,
as an employe in a lead plant, soon proved
his industry and executive ability, and for
many years has been one of the controlling
factors in the industries of this region.
The prosperous town of Doe Run may
properly be said to have been founded by
Mr. Graves in 1887. The fii-st log house is
yet on the site, and the old building still
stands as the first monument of civilization in
what is now one of the best towns of south-
eastern Missouri.
Mr. Graves was born in Rochester, New
York, January 17, 1849, a son of William
Henry and Julia (Parsons) Graves. "Wlien
he was a few months old he lost his mother
and twin brother, and eight years later came
the death of his father, who was salesman for
one of Rochester's seed houses. He after-
wards lived in the home of his grandmother,
then with an uncle at Burr Oak, Michigan,
and at the age of twelve went to the home of
an aunt at Hillsdale. Jlichigan. He attended
school at Burr Oak and Hillsdale, also a
private school in the latter place, and when
seventeen years old was sent to Southampton,
Massachusetts, and in 1866 entered "Williston
Seminary at Easthampton.
Being unable to continue until he com-
pleted the full course, he came west to Mis-
souri in 1868 and found his first employment
in the St. Joseph lead mines at Bonne Terre.
After two years in the mills and shops of the
company he was promoted to the position of
cashier and continued in that capacity for
over nineteen years.
In 1887 he was identified with the organ-
ization of the Doe Run Lead Company, at
which time he became a resident of Doe Run
and in charge of the works at this place. Few
employers have been more closely associated
with their men than Mr. Graves. While he
has acquired wealth and distinction, it has
been his pleasure to contribute a generous
share to the welfare and comfort of the men
at the works. The club house, with its bowl-
ing alleys, billiard and pool rooms and other
attractions, is the center of social life for this
community, and in establishing and maintain-
ing it successfully Mr. Graves has accom-
plished a work that can be mentioned with
pride. Mr. Graves has a state and national
reputation in the sport of bowling, being pro-
ficient in that game himself, but more on
account of his enthusiastic efforts ior the pro-
motion of this department of sports.
The Graves museum of minerals, ancient
vessels and arms of the orient, rare coins,
implements of the stone age, rare books and
manuscripts, and some six thousand stamps,
comprise one of the finest collections in the
United States and is one of the attractions of
southeastern Missouri Mr. Graves has spent
thirty-five years in assembling the specimens,
at great cost of labor and money. The
original collection was a box of ores which he
kept in the office at Bonne Terre in 1870. A
brick fireproof building, thirty by sixty feet,
is now the home of the collection. The choic-
est specimens have been on exhibition at all
the important world's fairs and expositions
held in this country since 1876, and the prize
awards bestowed on them would make quite a
collection of themselves. Mr. Graves was
appointed by Governor Dockerj^ as Missouri
commissioner of mines and mining at the Pan-
American exposition at Buffalo in 1901, and
also at the Charleston exposition of 1902.
Mr. Graves is a stanch Republican, and
served as postmaster at Doe Run from 1887
to 1891. He is a member of the Masonic
order and the A. 0. U. W., and his church is
the Congregational.
Mrs. Graves before her marriage was Miss
Mary E. Woodside, of Bonne Terre. Five,
children were born to them, and the two now
living are Dr. John B., of Sikeston, Missouri, '
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and Mrs. J. V. Braham, of Cape Girardeau,
Missouri.
W. N. Cole. A citizen of Dunklin county
whose career has been long and varied and
has brought large prosperity and esteem as a
result, Mr. W. N. Cole, of Hornersville, began
life with nothing and by industry and an
ability to do things well has never had to com-
plain of fortune's treatment.
He was born in Tennessee, September 22,
1853, and in the year of 1857 the family
moved to New Madrid county, ilissouri. His
father had been a soldier of the Mexican
war. During his youth here he had very little
schooling. When he was about nineteen his
father and he moved to Howell county, Mis-
souri, his mother having died. The young
man then married, but his first wife lived
less than a year, and he and his father then
returned to New Madrid county, where he
married Miss Elizabeth Ballard. They here
had the following children: Richard, Lula
Belle, Wallace F., John, Pearl and Irene.
In 1876 he came to Dunklin county and
bought nineteen acres of land. To pay for
this he worked at twenty dollars a month,
and after he had paid for the little place and
lived on it two years he sold and then bought
one hundred and sixty acres in the wood, all
timber. This is his home farm, but in the
subsequent years his industry and manage-
ment have transformed it into one of the
best improved places in this neighborhood.
He cleared it, all but eight acres, and built
two houses and barns. A forty acres across
from this place he bought at $68.35 an acre,
and it is now worth over a hundred dollars
an acre.
In addition to farming he has been very
active in other lines of business. He is a
ditch contractor and is now engaged in the
construction of a ditch eleven and a half
miles long from the state line to Tom
Douglass', one mile west of Caruth. For
eleven years he was a licensed pilot on the
Mississippi river, and spent eleven years on
the river, eight years as pilot and master of
steam vessels. He was one of the capable
river men and he received good pay, and dur-
ing this period of his career he kept a tenant
on his farm, and in this way was able to ac-
cumulate a good property. For several years
he engaged in the construction of cotton
gins, doing this work all the way from
•Osecola, Arkansas, to Kennett, Missouri. He
put up the first modern gin at Hornersville,
for j\Ir. A. J. Langdon. An excellent me-
chanic, he has turned his skill to profit and
service in many waj's.
Mr. Cole served as a member of the county
court four years, being appointed by the gov-
ernor at fii'st to serve an unexpired term.
During this time he was one of the members
that organized the St. Francis Levee district,
and two thousand dollars was appropriated
to remove the drift from the river, a work
that was so far successful as to make the river
navigable. Fraternally ilr. Cole is affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
at Hornersville, the Elks at Paragould, the
Knights of Pythias and the ilasonic lodge
at Cardwell.
Syenite Granite Cohpany. A gigantic
industrial concern that has proved of more
than local value to the community of Gran-
iteville and Iron county at large, the Syenite
Granite Company has greatly promoted the
commercial activity of the entire state of
Missouri. This company leases some twelve
hundred acres of land in the northern part
of Iron county, where it operates the Syenite
red granite ciuarries, its product being prac-
tically the same as the old Egj'ptian s.veuite
granite, suitable for window sills, massive
columns, monuments, etc. The company was
incorporated under the laws of the state of
Missouri in 1882, the leading spirits in the
movement being W. R. Allen, E. M. Smith
and T. F. Walsh. At that early day the
quarries at Syenite, in St. Francois county.
Missouri, had already been opened and for
the succeeding ten or twelve years they were
operated by this company. At the expira-
tion of that period, in 1882, removal was
made to Graniteville, where the United
States government was already engaged in
the production of granite for public build-
ings, its plant being in charge of P. W.
Schneider, who later removed to a quarry
one mile north of Graniteville. This lease
is owned by the operators of the old Iron
Mountain Mine. The narrow gauge railroad
has been replaced by the present standard
gauge railroad, connected with the Iron
Mountain line at Middlebrook, Missouri, thus
giving ample facilities for the transportation
of products. The plant is fully equipped
with up-to-date machinery, immense travel-
ing crane, compressed air tools, etc.. for cut-
ting and polishing the granite. Some sixty
skilled men and about twenty other workmen
are employed at the present time, in 1911.
Formerly some fifteen hundred men were
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
employed, but this was in the days before
the introduction of cheaper stone, when pav-
ing was done with this quality granite. The
Syenite Granite Company is capitalized with
a capital stock of three hundred thousand
dollars, fully paid up and the official corps
is as follows : W. R. Allen, president ; T. P.
Walsh, vice-president and treasurer; and H.
W. Allen, secretary. In connection with its
quarries the Company conducts a large gen-
eral store at Graniteville.
Concerning the tensile strength of the
granite produced by this company the fol-
lowing letter from J. B. Johnson, professor
of civil engineering at Washington Univer-
sity, St. Louis, is here incorporated, the same
having been written June 14, 1895.
' ' Referring to j'our letter of incpiiry of the
13th, I am pleased to inform you that the
two specimens of granite which you sent me
were ground down by me on their top and
bottom faces to true parallel planes, leaving
prisms, which were 3.85 square inches and
3.78 square inches in area respectively.
These specimens broke, the former at 93,100
pounds or 24,200 pounds per square inch,
and the latter at 95,700 pounds, or 26,400
pounds per square inch.
"These results are higher than I can find
on record for granite, and the tests were
made also on prisms about twice as high as
they were in lateral dimension. In other
words, the prisms were about four inches
high, and about two inches square.
"From the law of the variation of crush-
ing strength with height of specimen, I would
infer that if these specimens had been
tested in a cubical form, and prepared in a
similar manner, their strength would have
been something over 27,000 and 29,000
pounds per square inch respectively."
Signed, J. B. Johnson.
The granite from the quarries of the Syen-
ite Granite Company has been used exten-
sively and gives universal satisfaction. It
has been used and may be seen in prominent
buildings in nearly every large city in the
United States and it has been found pecu-
liarly adaptable for monumental purposes.
William R. Allen, Jr., who has been active-
ly connected with the work and management
of the Company during practically his en-
tire active career, is a native of the city of
St. Louis but he has resided at Graniteville
for the past thirteen years! In addition to
his other interests he is postmaster at Gran-
iteville, where he is honored and respected
as a man of unusual loyalty and public spirit.
He was born on the 15th of June, 1878, and
is a son of William R. Allen, president of
the Syenite Granite Company. The father
was born in St. Louis, in 1S47, and is a son
of the Hon. Thomas Allen, who constructed
the Iron ^Mountain Railroad and the South-
ern Hotel, at St. Lovus. Thomas Allen mar-
ried iliss Ann Clementine Russell, of Belle-
view, Missouri, and they reared a large
family of children at St. Louis. He was not
interested in the Syenite Granite Company
but promoted a number of other important
business enterprises in St. Louis and in 1880-
82 represented the St. Louis district of Mis-
souri in the United States Congress, his death
having occurred at Washiugton, D. C., in
1882. He also served with the utmost ef-
ficiency as state senator in the Missouri legis-
lature and in 1858 he founded the Allen, Copp
& Nesbit Banking House at St. Louis. Wil-
liam R. Allen, Sr., is owner of the Allen farm,
at Pittsfield. Massachusetts, where he has
maintained his home since 1882. In addition
to being president of the granite company
mentioned in this review he is also president
of the Southern Hotel Company. He married
Miss Louise B. Woodward, a native of St.
Louis and a scion of an old and honored Con-
necticut family.
The third in order of birth of the four
children born to Mr. and Mrs. William R.
Allen, Sr., William R. Allen, Jr., has one
brother living at the present time, in 1911,
namely, — Henry W., who is secretary of the
Syenite Granite Company and who resides
at St. Louis, where he is lawyer and counsel
for the Guarantee Title & Trust Company.
William R. Allen, Jr., was educated in the
east, where he attended the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, commonly known as
the "Boston Tech." Since 1903 he has been
the postmaster at Graniteville. At St. Louis,
in 1905, was solemnized his marriage to iliss
Florence York, a native of St. Louis. Mr.
and Mrs. Allen have two sons, F. York and
W. R., third.
Claude E. Abshier, editor and proprietor
of the Desloge Sun, is one of the most enter-
prising newspaper men of Southeast Mis-
souri. Since the paper came under his own-
ership in 1907 it has improved in all the fea-
tures which mark a first-class local journal,
and in the last two years its circulation has
trebled, which is the best indication of the
value of a newspaper's existence. Mr. Abshier
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
is a practical printer and all-around news-
paper man, and entered the business when
a boy. He is a member of the Press Asso-
ciation of ilissouri.
He was born in Spencer county, Indiana,
October 31. 1873. His father, Alfred Abshier,
was born in Illinois in 1848. accompanied the
family to Indiana, where he grew to man-
hood, and at the age of eighteen enlisted in
tlie Tenth Regiment Indiana Vohmteer Cav-
ahy, January IS, 1S64, for service in the Civil
war. He was mustered out at Evansville,
Indiana, May 25, 1865. Previous to this he
had acquired a good literary education and
had studied medicine, and after the war he
engaged in practice in Indiana. In 1873 he
moved to Scott county, Missouri, wdiere his
time was divided between the practice of
medicine, teaching school and farming. He
took up a homestead and was employed in
developing it for ten years. In 1886, after
having returned to Indiana and resided at
Booneville, he moved his family to Florida,
where he still resides. He has a good prac-
tice and is secretary of the Welaka Board of
Trade. He is a Republican in politics and a
member of the Grand Army of the Republic,
and of the Christian church. At the close
of the war he was married to Miss Nancy
Ray, of Spencer county. Her death occurred
in 190i, and in 1905 he was again mar-
ried. By his first marriage ten children were
born, five sons and five daughters, Claude
being the second living child.
Claude E. Abshier 's early life was spent
in Southeast Missouri, in Scott county, where
he attended the local schools, and during
1884 he attended school in Booneville, Spen-
cer county, Indiana. In 1886, when the
family moved to Florida, he apprenticed
himself to the printer's trade, and was em-
ployed for a time on the Belleview (Florida)
Blade, and later with the establishment of
Ogden Brothers & Company of Knoxville,
Tennessee. Returning to Florida in 1895, he
began the publication of the Belleview Xeivs-
Letfer. which he condiicted two years. For
six years he was engaged in farming in
Spencer county. Indiana, and in 1907 came
to the lead belt of Missouri and bought the
Desloge Sun. He conducts this as an inde-
pendent paper, and has made it an organ of
influence and of news.
In 1901 Mr. Abshier was married in
Spencer county to I\Iiss Delta Belle Haynes,
a daughter of T. K. Haynes, a prosperous
farmer of that locality. They are the parents
of three children: Oscar Mason, deceased;
Thomas Gurley, and Gladys Pauline.
B. N. Vaedell. One of the very success-
ful men of Dunklin county who began here
when the countrj' was a wilderness and whose
only capital was personal integrity and in-
dustry is ^Ir. B. N. Vardell, near Senath.
Born in Tennessee August 13, 1851, and
reared there, but deprived of any consider-
able schooling by the war, he came alone to
Dunklin county in 1874, and had neither
money nor friends. In the course of years
he has acquired both, and along with it the
respect of all who have watched the industry
and good management which he has dis-
played.
During the first year he worked on the
farm of J. C. McClane, and then bought from
his employer forty acres for three hundred
dollars. It was partly improved and he lived
on it for a time and sold it, and with the
proceeds bought another forty that is part of
his present estate. He built him a home and
lived there for about ten years. In 1876 he
married jMiss Almira Horner, of one of the
old families of this county. She owned in
all one hundred and sixty acres, and from
their joint possessions and subsequent good
management they have gained a position
among the well-to-do people of the county.
Some of the land which he bought from time
to time is now worth thirty-five times what
he gave for it. In 1897 he moved to his
present residence, this being the second home
he has built. He and his wife now own three
hundred and twenty acres, well improved
and highly cultivated. He himself farms only
about one hundred acres, and the rest is
worked by tenants, there being four tenant
houses on his farm. In the early days while
he and his ^^^fe were gradually getting ahead,
times were hard and prices of supplies very
high in proportion to what they got for their
crops. For a number of years the nearest
railroad point was ]Malden, forty miles away,
and in those days they had flour bread but
once a week.
In politics he is a Democrat and he and his
family are ^Methodists. The children are as
follows : Drew, a resident of Dunklin county ;
Benjamin, a farmer of Dunklin county;
Amanda, at home ; Floyd and Virgil, at home.
John I. Marsh.4ll. Though only forty-
five years old, l\Ir. J. I. Marshall has a record
of seventeen years of public service in Iron
W. F. SHELTON, SR.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI
coimty. His father, Benjamin J\I. Marshall,
was born near New York city, but came to
St. Francois county when a young man and
followed farming there until his death, in
1887. His mother, :\Iary (Wood) Marshall,
is a native of Tennessee, from which state she
came with her parents to St. Francois county
when only one year old. She is now eighty-
three years old and still a citizen of ^lissouri.
John I. Marshall was born November 8,
1866, in St. Francois county, and was one of
twelve children, of whom four are still living :
Nannie E. (Sills), of College City, Cali-
fornia; Sarah (Cook), of St. Louis; W. P.,
of Los Angeles, California; and the present
sheriff of Iron county.
Mr. Marshall has lived in Ironton since he
was ten years of age. He attended the public
schools of this city, and was later city mar-
shal. For ten years he served as deputy
sheriff, and when sheriff Polk was killed in
1905 he was selected to fill out the term and
he has been twice elected to the office. He
has four deputies : D. B. Blanton and George
W. Marshall of Ironton ; A. L. Daniels of Des
Arc ; and W. E. Westerman, of the western
part of the county. On the 30th of :\Iay, 1905,
Sheriff' ^Marshall headed the posse which cap-
tured the Spaugh Brothers, who had shortly
before murdered Sheriff John AY. Polk. The
Spaugh Brothers ai-e now serving life sen-
tences at the penitentiary at Jefferson City.
Mr. IMarshall's political allegiance belongs
to the Democratic party. His religious pref-
erence is for the church of which his vener-
able mother is still an active member, the
Methodist. He is a member of the Knights
of Pythias lodge of Ironton, and also of the
Modern Woodmen of America.
Wells R. Harket. A worthy represen-
tatative of an honored pioneer of Dunklin
county, and a highly prosperous agricul-
turist of the town of Senath, W. R. Harkey
has been actively identified with the develop-
ment and advancement of the farming inter-
ests of this part of ]\Iissouri. He was born
April 2, 1865, on a Dunklin county farm,
and was educated in the Harkey school. His
mother died when he was a lad of twelve
years, but his father married for his second
wife a woman who proved an admirable step-
mother, and he continued his residence under
the parental roof-tree until after attaining
his majority.
When ready to establish himself in a home
of his own Mr. Harkey bought forty acres
of land, borrowing the money for which to
pay for it, and by dint of hard labor suc-
ceeded in improving a good farm from the
forest. He erected a comfortable dwelling
house, and put up other necessary farm
buildings. At the end of eight years he had
paid off the indebtedness on that tract of
land, and later sold it at an advance. At the
death of his father, in 1887, Harkey bought
out the interests of the remaining nine heirs
in the old home farm in Senath, and has now
a fine farm of one hundred and ninety-eight
acres. During the years that he has occupied
this place he has greatly improved the prop-
erty, having entirely renovated the buildings,
putting up new wherever necessary, and
placed the land in a good yielding condition,
his homestead being now one of the most at-
tractive and valuable in the vicinity, the land
being worth fully one hundred and twenty-
five dollars an acre. He has a well-bearing
peach orchard, and a good apple orchard,
and raises some small fruits and berries. He
raises some stock, which he sells to local buy-
ers, raising about seventy-five hogs a year,
and handling some mules.
Mr. Harkey is a Democrat in polities, and
fraternally is a member of Senath Lodge,
Modern Woodmen of America. He is a
Methodist in religion, attending Harkey 's
Chapel, which was named in memory of his
father. He like^\•ise belongs to the Farmers'
Union, which owns a grist mill and cotton gin
in Senath, and in these he is a stockholder.
Mr. Harkey has been three times married.
He married first, at Nesbit, Dunklin county,
Alice Strauther, who lived but five years
after their marriage. Three children were
bom to them, namely : William F., a resident
of Arkansas, married Mary Mautsanger;
Bertie; and a child that died in infancy. By
his second wife, whose maiden name was Ella
Dean, Mr. Harkey has one child, who lived
but six months. Mr. Harkey married for his
third wife, in 1894, Eva IBishop, who was
bom in Arkansas in 1875, and of their union
eight children have been born, namely: Hu-
bert (who assists his father in the care of the
farm), Lillian, Lena, Charles W., Cleva B.,
Walton, Bishop and Paul.
W. F. Shelton. In the death of W. F.
Shelton, Dunklin county lost its foremost citi-
zen, its wealthiest one and thousands have lost
a friend who can with difficulty be replaced.
82-4
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
He was broad minded, liberal, charitable and
at all times just. He carved out liis owu
career aud he was a skiiilul sculptor.
William "Prauklm tiheltou was born in
Ferry county, Tennessee, July 5, lii'dti. His
pai-ents, iinoch and Tabitlia (BrownJ Shel-
ton, were of North Carolina birth and in Ibic!
they moved to Uape Girardeau county and
after a few years moved to JJunklin county,
near Kennett, where both of them died, he in
Iti-iti, two years after they moved to Dunklm
county. Mr. and Mrs. Enoch Shelton had six
children, William F., John, Garvis and
Joseph, a little girl who died ui infancy and
Mary Jane, who married Mr. ]\lcMullin, of
Water Valley. She died in 1909. WiUiam
Franklin Shelton was only ten years old when
his father died and from that time he began
to work on a farm, attending school for four
mouths in the winter. He worked as a cotton
picker, as a farm hand, as a trapper and
laborer, anything that he could get to earn a
little money he tried. In the fifties he made
a trip to Pike's Peak and spent some time in
the Indian Territory. He made his head-
quarters with the late Captain Marsh, going
there when he was not working at too gi'eat a
distance. When the Civil war broke out W^il-
liam was one of the first to volunteer his serv-
ices to the Confederate army. He was a mem-
ber of General Jackson's militia and of Com-
pany D, Walker's Missouri Infantry for less
than a year. After the war was ended he
came back to Captain Marsh's and he then be-
gan to seU goods. His first business venture
was as a merchant with a small stock of
goods bought with the proceeds of a tract of
land which Captain ]Marsh had given him.
He put his goods into a building which he had
moved from east of where the Frisco depot
now stands to the north side of the square,
near the Shelton and Ward store of to-day.
Later he had a store where bis office was
afterward located until his death. Then he
bad his store on the opera house corner and
again at the location of the present Shelton
store. At one time, in 1876. he was a partner
of James' P. Walker in tlif mercantile business
at Dexter. It would be iiui>iissilile to name
the many enterprises with wliicli .Mr. Shelton
was connected — gins, mills and other ventures.
He had wonderful business and executive
ability and was always sself possessed, though
quiet in his speech. He had not had the ad-
vantage of much .schooling but he was a great
reader and had a most wonderfully clear and
retentive mind, rarely forgetting anything he
read. For forty years he made money and
loaned it successfully, but those who knew him
best say that he did not accumulate nearly as
much as he might have done if he had been
less tender hearted. He would trust any man
once and if he proved honest there was no
limit to his confidence. He was never known
to harass or deal unjustly with a debtor. He
was not a member of any church, but he was
none the less a Christian man, as is evidenced
by his charity. Pie gave freely and without
show, so that none but the recipients of his
deeds of kindness ever knew of his charitable
acts. He left an estate worth close to three
quarters of a million dollars, most of the
amount going to his two nephews, W. F.,
Junior, and Lee, sons of Mr. Shelton 's brother
Joseph. He was a partner in the W. F. Shel-
ton Junior Store Company, in the firm of
Shelton and Ward and the Kennett Furniture
Company, besides being a stockholder in
various companies. He was president of the
Dunklin County Publishing Company, the
owners of the Dunklin Democrat. He owned
a number of business houses and dwellings in
Kennett and also large tracts of farm lands
in the county. At the time of his death, Feb-
ruary 11, 1908, he was the oldest merchant in
Kennett and Dunklin county. He was a
Democrat and a leader in political affairs,
doing everything he could for the advance-
ment of his county. He was county treasurer
for eight years and was chairman of the
Democratic Central Committee. It hardly
seems possible for anything to have added to
the usefulness of Mr. Shelton, but it may be
that if he had married his life would have
been more complete. He was not, however,
like the old bachelor is usually depicted ; he
thought of himself last and of those in need
at all times. There are many who can testify
to the help that Mr. Shelton was to them.
Three years ha.ve elapsed since his death, but
his place is not yet filled by any one man, nor
will the gap he left ever be entirely filled
while those who knew and loved him live.
At the same time his namesake, W. F.
Shelton Junior, is doing all that it is possible
to follow in his uncle's footsteps and has in
addition made tracks of his own. He was born
in Kennett, November 24, 1870. His parents
were Joseph and Mary Jane (Hamilton)
Shelton, both natives of Tennessee, coming to
Dunklin county before the war. Joseph was
a farmer and died when he was forty-five
years old.
W. F. Shelton was brought up on his
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
825
father's farm and attended school at the
Bellevue Collegiate Institute at Caledonia,
Missouri, then taking a business course in St.
Louis. When he was only eighteen he entered
his uncle's office, remaining with him until
1892, since when he has made good for himself,
although his uncle always took the most af-
fectionate interest in his doings. Mr. Shelton
is a member of the W. F. Shelton Junior
Store Company of Kennett, a business which
had been established by his uncle soon after
the Civil war. Since its first start the name
had changed from T. E. Baldwin and Com-
pany to R. E. Sexton and Company and later
to W. F. Shelton Junior and Company in 1892,
being changed in January, 1908, to W. F.
Shelton Junior Store Company, and being in-
corporated with a capital of twenty-five thou-
sand dollars. The business has grown greatly
during the last sixteen years, during Mr.
Shelton 's connection with it. They do an an-
nual business of about one hundred thousand
dollars, general merchandise sales. The Com-
pany owns the building in which they do busi-
ness, a structure forty-two by one hundred
and thirty-two feet, two stories high. They
carry a line of dry goods, gi-oceries, millinery,
hats, caps, ladies' suits, clothing, etc. They
employ fourteen salesmen. Mr. Shelton is
also a stockholder in the Shelton Ward Hard-
ware Company of Kennett, the owners being
W. J. Ward, W. F. Shelton and Lee Shelton.
It was founded about 1897 by W. F. Shelton,
W. F. Shelton Junior and W. J. Ward and
was incorporated January, 1908, with a cap-
ital of fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Shelton
has for years been a director of the Bank of
Kennett, organized by his uncle. For the past
five years he has been the president of this
bank. In addition to his commercial inter-
ests. Mr. Shelton is farming two thousand
acres of land in Dunklin county and Greene
county. Arkansas.
In " October, 1908, Mr. Shelton married
Edith Jeannin, one of the most popiilar young
ladies in the county. She was born in Cape
Girardeau and brought up in Florida. No
children have as yet been bom to the union.
As the wife of Mr. Shelton, she has by no
means lost anv of her charm nor her sweet
personality. She is loved by all who know
her not for the sake of her husband's posi-
tions, but for her own self.
Mr. Shelton is a voung man still and has
many years of usefulness before him, it is to
be hoped and expected. The name of W. F.
Shelton will ever be loved in Kennett, first
because Mr. Shelton 's iincle bore it, but sec-
ondly because the present owner is endearing
it to the people. He is Hviug a life worthy
of the name, than which no higher encomium
could be given. He is the worthy nephew of
a worthy uncle, a successful business man in
a prosperous city and a helper to his fellow
men.
Thomas Higginbotham. AVashington coun-
ty presents no more stanch nor interesting
character than Judge Thomas Pligginbotham
who at his country home near Blackwell is
engaged in the wise management of his agri-
cultural property and the quiet pursuits of a
scholar. His varied experience, his wide
reading and his able practice in the law and
on the bench has stored his mind with a
great fund of knowledge, freighted with ad-
venture, keen observations and gleanings
from the world's literature. Having fully
earned retirement from the storm and stress
of life, although well along towards patriar-
chial age, he still possesses that sturdiness
of manhood and vital interest in the affairs
of this good world that save him from sloth
either of body or of mind. His old and pic-
turesque homestead, with its quaint flower
gardens and mounds thrown up by prehis-
toric builders, as well as its fine evidences
of modern thrift and taste, is a fitting ma-
terial manifestation of a strong and broad
character which is rooted in the past, but
still leaves and blossoms in the present.
Judge Higginbotham is a native of Wash-
ington county, Missouri, where he was born
on the 15th of November, 1835. His father,
G. W. Higginbotham, also a native of that
section of the state, was one of the pioneer
fai-mers and lead miners of southeast Mis-
souri. Without waiting for a large bank
account (as it was not the style of those
days), he wedded ]\Iiss Helen Turley, by
whom he had eight children, as follows: Bur-
ris and Nellzenie, both deceased; Thomas,
of this review; Alzoinie (Mrs. Engledow),
a widow; Z. F. and L. B. also deceased;
Crews and Miranda, the last named
having passed away. The father of this
family met a violent death at the hands of
robbers, in May, 1863, and the mother died
in 1867.
The son's early manhood was spent in the
log schoolhouse of his home neighborhood,
assisting his father in the cultivation of the
farm and the handling of his live stock. In
his youth and young manhood he was em-
826
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
ployed in the construction of the Iron iloun-
tain railroad and in the mining of lead. He
began the study of law in 1870, and in the
same year was elected to the probate bench,
upon which he sat for six years. At the con-
clusion of his term he commenced to raise
stock, at one time having a large contract
with the government in that line.
Judge Higginbotham "s homestead is not
onl.v quaint and picturesque, but historic.
His large and striking residence is of ante-
bellum architecture, and his father bought
the property of Jack T. Smith, a noted fighter
of the early days, who claimed his title from
an old Spanish grant. This tract bearing
such interesting evidences of prehistoric
builders was purchased by his wife's grand-
father, and was also originally included in
one of the noted Spanish grants with which
this section of the country is so plentifullj'
plastered. It was this circumstance that
aroused the Judge's interest in antiquarian
studies and eventuated in such large and
complete collection that it justly may be
termed a museum of antiquities.
The tract of land from which have been
chiefly unearthed these valuable and inter-
esting relics is known as Boat Yard Farm,
and lies at the forks of the Mineral Ford and
Big rivers. It derives its name from the fact
that in early times many river boats were
built at this point. The locality carries the
student of American history back for some
two centuries, but concerns the antiquarian
as the depository of mastodon bones and a
favorite locality of the mound builders.
In 1S73 Judge Higginbotham was united
in marriage with Mi.ss Cai-oline ^Madden, a
native of his own Washington county. The
only child of their marriage, Lottie, is de-
ceased. He is a Democrat in politics and a
Mason fraternally, having joined the order in
1873. ilrs. Higginbotham is a member of tlie
Catholic church. Both the Judge and ilrs.
Higginbotham are sociable and charming en-
tertainers and their unique and beautiful
home is the center of much enjoyment and
cultured hospitality.
Ben ROGEE.S Downing, M. D. One of the
greatest of the English poets has declared,
"A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to
heal.
Is more than armies to the public weal."
As such must be reckoned Dr. Ben Rogers
Downing, who is one of the able and enlight-
ened physicians and. surgeons of Saint Fran-
cois county. He is a native of the state, his
birth having occurred at Memphis, Scotland
county, Missouri, October 28, 1874. His
father, "William G. Downing, was born in
Virginia in the year 1820, and after obtain-
ing a country school education he came with
his parents to Scotland county, Missouri, and
there the town of Downing was named in
honor of the family. The elder gentleman
engaged in the general mercantile business
up to the time of the beginning of the Civil
war, but although he was strongly Confeder-
ate in sentiment, he could not enlist in the
support of the cause he believed to be just,
owing to the fact that he was a cripple, his
arm being stiff from a fracture of earlier
days. After the termination of the war, he
went to St. Louis and there engaged in the
wholesale grocery business, continuing thus
profitably occupied for a number of years
and subsequently going into the commission
business. He was the possessor of valuable
farming interests in Dakota and he came to
be a man of no inconsiderable wealth. In
188-1 he was elected railroad commissioner
of the state of Missouri, an office he held for
six years. At the close of his tenure of office,
he retired and lived free from the active re-
sponsibilities of life up to the time of his
demise in 1902. He married ilary A. Jones,
born in 1834 in Quincy. Illinois, a daugh-
ter of William A. Jones, United States mar-
shal for the western district of Jlissouri.
They were married in 1849, and to this union
the following nine children were born : James
Logan; William Green; Milton, Tom and
Charles, deceased; Smith; May, now Mrs.
John B. Breathitt; Minnie, wife of Samuel
P. Griffith ; and the subject, who is the
youngest in order of birth, ilr. Do'ivning
was a Democrat in politics and a member of
the Christian church. He was a slave owner
and a strong supporter of the Confederacy.
Dr. Ben R. Downing received his education
in the public schools and in Jefferson City
and St. Louis, in the latter city attending
the Christian Brothers College. His attend-
ance at the institution named was of six
years' duration. Dr. Downing liad in the
meantime come to a decision as to his profes-
sion, and after finishing his general educa-
tion he matriculated in the Marion Sims
Medical College, now a part of the St. Louis
University, and was graduated in 1896, with
the degree of M. D. Since that time he has
practiced at Doe Run and at Farmington,
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST illSSOURI
827
being at the latter place at the present, and
he is a member of the County and State
Medical Associations.
On the 9th of February, 1899, Dr. Down-
ing laid the foundation of a happy house-
hold and congenial life companionship by his
marriage to ^liss Nellie Alexander, daughter
of J. C. Alexander, of Farmington. Three
promising children have been born to bless
their union, namely: William Alexander,
William Greene and Clara Abigail. In re-
ligious conviction Dr. Downing is Methodist
Episcopal; fraternally he is a member of the
ancient and august Masonic lodge; and in
the matter of politics he is Republican, ever
giving heart and baud to the policies and
principles of the ' ' Grand Old Party. ' '
Henry E. Bollinger was born August 20,
1863. His pedigree is as follows: Son of
Daniel Bollinger, the son of Philip, the son
'of Henry B., the son of Henry, the founder
of the family in North Carolina. Henry of
this sketch lived with his mother, Polly Ann
Bollinger, until her death, in 1901, at the age
of seventy-seven. She deeded the farm of
three hundred and sixty acres upon which
Henry E. now resides to its present owner
before her death. Along with the land he
also acquired considerable live stock.
Mr. Henry E. Bollinger was married in
1892 to Emma Bollinger, born in this
county some eighteen years before her
wedding. She is a daughter of Henry
A. Bollinger, who is now managing H. E.
Bollinger's farm. The latter sustained a
serious in.iurs- in 1904, which has incapaci-
tated him for heavy farm labor and since that
time his father-in-law has relieved him of the
management of the place.
The Bollinger family tree shows Henry A.
to be a descendant also of that Henry who im-
migrated from Switzerland to America in
1732, landing at Philadelphia, whence Henry
B. migrated to North Carolina as mentioned
above. Henry A. was born Jul.v 3, 1849, in
the county of his name. He was one of a
number of children, Joseph, Barbara. Eliza,
Elizabeth, Aaron, Sallie (Green), Susan
(Cook), and Polly Ann (Green). Wlien
twent.v-two years of age he married and lo-
cated on a portion of his father's farm on
Little Whitewater creek. He resided there
until March, 1898. when he moved to his
present place of residence. He was married
in 1871 to Mary T. Canneyt, a native of Bel-
gium. They have the following children
living: Emma, Charles F., Sarah, Philip,
Orleana, Grover, Amon, Joseph, Kye and
Robert. The entire acreage which Mr. Bol-
linger cultivates is over two hundred.
Emma, daughter of H. A. and wife of H.
E. Bollinger, has two children: Zettie, born
in 1894, and Charles, three years later, both
children's birthdays occurring in November.
The family are members of the Christian
church.
Francis Marion Carter. A brilliant and
veteran member of the bar of Saint Francois
county is Francis Marion Carter, city at-
torney of Farmington, who has been engaged
in the active practice of the law in this "city
since 1869, a period of more than forty years.
He is a man who has held many honorable
and responsible offices and held them in a
remarkably commendable manner, and in
glancing over his career it is discovered that
he has filled the position of superintendent
of the public schools, prosecuting attorney
for four terms, public administrator and state
representative in the Thirty-third General
Assembly. It is indeed appropriate that in
a work of this nature a man of such profes-
sional prestige and fine citizenship should be
represented, particularly when he belongs
to an old family in the state. For indeed
Zimri A. Carter, father of the Hon. Mr.
Carter, was one of Missouri's pioneer settlers.
Francis ]\Iarion Carter was born November
28, 1839, in Ripley county, ilissouri. His
father, Zimri A. Carter, was born about the
year 1796, in South Carolina, and came to
this state at the age of eighteen years with his
father, Benjamin Carter. These hopeful
pioneers located first in Warren county and
then came to Wayne county, where they very
successfully followed the vocation of farming
and stock-raising. In that count.v the father
met and married Clementine Chilton, a young
woman living in the locality but a native of
eastern Tennessee. To their union was bom
a family of true pioneer proportions, for fif-
teen sons and daughters were their portion,
JMr. Carter, of this review and a twin, being
the eleventh in order of birth. The father
passed away in 1870, and the faithful wife
and mother survived him only until 1871. The
politics of the elder man were Democratic
and he was one to be deeply interested in the
many-sided life of his community.
P. M. Carter, immediate subject, spent
his earl.y life upon the farm and early became
acquainted with the great basic industry in
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
all its workings. After securing such ad-
vantages in the way of education as were
offered by the district schools, it became the
young fellow's ambition to gain a higher
education, and in proof of the old adage that
"where there's a will, there's a way," he
matriculated in Arcadia College : then in the
University of Missouri; and took the degree
of A. B. from the University of North Caro-
lina in the year 1862. With the passage of
the j^ears he had fully decided to adopt the
profession of law as his own and he pursued
his studies under John F. Bush and his
brother, Judge William Carter, being ad-
mitted to the bar in 1869. Ever since that
time, as previously noted, he has been engaged
in the practice of law at Farmington, and
here many honors have come to him. These
have been in part enumerated and give in
themselves an idea of his ability and the
trust in which he is held by those who know
him best. He is now city attorney of Farm-
ington and is engaged in the active practice
of the profession to which he is so undeniably
an ornament. He is a Democrat of the sound-
est and most stalwart type and holds high
place in party councils.
I\Ir. Carter's wife previous to her marriage
was Miss Maria A. McAnally, daughter of
Dr. D. R. McAnally, of St. Louis, and their
union was solemnized June 20, 1877, at South
St. Louis, Missouri. They share their cul-
tured and delightful home with the following
five children : Amy M., Russell. William Pres-
ton, Francis Floyd and Helen B. The family
is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal
church, South.
Edwin L. Tinnin, who was born on the
place where he now resides, near Horners-
ville, March 18, 1872, is one of the prosper-
ous citizens of Dunklin county whose early
life was spent among the pioneer conditions
that once prevailed in this part of Missouri,
and who has been a factor in promoting the
work of development and has been rewarded
with a fair share of the general prosperity
which now rests on this region.
His father was Z. P. Tinnin, who died in
1887, at the age of seventy-five. He was a
former resident of Madison county, Missouri,
and in 18.W located on Big Lake Island. ]\ris-
sissippi county, Arkansas, but some two or
three years later secured a farm near the
state line. Finally he settled about two miles
south of Homersville and spent the rest of
his active life in farming there, excepting
two years spent in Texas. He was married
three times, and the mother of E. L. was his
third wife. Her maiden name was ilissouri
Taylor, and she was born in Stoddard county
^Missouri, but lived in Mississippi county
Arkansas, from the age of eighteen until her
marriage to James H. Bunch, when they
removed to Dunklin county, Missouri. After
Mr. Bunch's death she married Mr. Z. P.
Tinnin, in 1870. She then resided at the home
in Dunklin county, Missouri, until her death
in 1902, at the age of sixty-six, excepting the
two years spent in Texas. She had lived in
this count.y when the Indians were still about,
before the general departure of the tribes for
the west.
JMr. Edwin L. Tinnin is next to the young-
est of the three families of children of his
father's three iinions. His only full sister,
Emma, died when three months old. He had
seventeen half brothers and half sisters, of
whom but three half sisters are living; Betsy
Ann (Henson), of Madison county, ^Missouri ;
Victoria (Roach), of Dunklin county, Mis-
souri; and Catherine (Rhodes), of Missis-
sippi county, Arkansas.
The old homestead where Mr. Tinnin was
born and where he still lives was the prop-
erty of his mother's first husband. His
father died when he was fifteen years old, he
being the youngest of the four children left
in the mother's care. He had no school ad-
vantages, and has won his success through
his own efforts. In 1891 he married at Hor-
nersville. Miss Lueta Fleeman. who died in
1895, at the age of twenty-four, the mother
of three children; ]Mollie, born in 1893, and
Maude, born in 1896. both now living at home,
and James, who died in infancy. ]\Ir. Tinnin
in 1897 married Janetta Lee Grable. daughter
of Jonathan P. and Mary (Crites) Grable, and
who was born in Cape Girardeau county,
Missouri, September 1, 1879. Two of their
children, William and Edwin, Jr., died at
six weeks and nine months, respectively, and
the others at home are Omega, Robert, Mc-
Kinnis and Hazel. Mrs. E. L. Tinnin 's par-
ents, J. P. and Mary Grable. were natives
respectively of Indiana and of Wayne coun-
ty, Missouri. Both are deceased, the father
dying August 8, 1910, aged seventy-four,
and Mary, his wife, died August 20, 1903,
aged sixty-five years. Mrs. Tinnin was the
ninth of a family of ten children, of whom
five are living, all the others in Mississippi
county, Arkansas, viz: Bennett, Francis,
Maggie (Laxson), Columbus.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
829
In 1S91 ill'. Tinnin began buying out the
heirs to the home place, and by thrift and in-
dustry gradually got ahead in the world un-
til he now owns a nice farm of sixty-eight
acres, worth a hundred dollars an acre. He
supported his mother after his father's death,
and has paid all his obligations and made a
worthy career. In politics he is a Democrat.
Fraternally he belongs to the ilasonic lodge,
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
the Mutual Protective League. His church
is the Missionary Baptist.
Charles W. Schneider. The present effi-
cient incumbent of the office of vice-president
of the widely renowned Schneider Granite
Companj', of St. Louis, is Charles ^Y. Schnei-
der, whose name forms the caption for this re-
view. Mr. Schneider maintains his home and
business headquarters at Graniteville, in Iron
county, Missouri, one of the large quarries
of the company being located in this place.
This gigantic concern was founded in the
year 1869 by Philip W. Schneider, father
of the subject of this review, and it has been
controlled by members of the family during
the long intervening years to the present
time.
Charles W. Schneider was born in the city
of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 11th of No-
vember, 1869, and he is a son of Philip W.
and Sophia (Hiltz) Schneider, the former
of whom was born in the province of Bavaria
and the latter of whom is a native of Alsace-
Lorraine, Germany. The date of the father's
birth was 1825 and he came to the United
States in 1840, at the early age of fifteen
years, immediately proceeding to the middle
•west and giving his attention to railroad con-
struction work. He was employed for a
time on the Baltimore and Ohio Road and
later became foreman and contractor on the
Panama Railroad. In the latter 'oOs he
built the Iron Mountain railroad tunnel at
Vineland, Missouri, and thereafter conducted
limestone ciuarries at St. Louis for a number
of years. In 1869 he became interested in
some granite quarries in Iron county and in
addition to various experiments he handled
many large government contracts in a num-
ber of large cities in the Ignited States. He
developed and introduced red granite into
the markets of this country and it may be
stated here that his product is the finest and
hardest red granite produced in America.
In 1869 he began operations at the quarries
now leased by the Syenite Granite Company,
continuing to work the same until 1882. In
1886 he organized the Schneider Granite
Company and opened the quarry one mile
northwest of Graniteville, of which gigantic
concern he was president until his death, on
the 6th of July, 1905. This company was
incorporated under the laws of the state of
Missouri in 1890 and the paid up capital
stock at the present time amounts to one hun-
dred and fiftj' thousand dollars. It produces
Missouri red granite for building work, di-
mension, paving, flagging, curbing and
polishing, and crushed granite. There is a
tremendous demand for the above products
throughout the United States and the busi-
ness is in a most flourishing condition.
The mother of the subject of this review
is Sophia (Hiltz) Schneider, who accom-
panied her parents from her native place in
Germany to the United States as a child. Lo-
cation was flrst made by the Hiltz family at
New Orleans, whence removal was later made
to St. Louis. Mr. Hiltz operated a stage and
mail line south from St. Louis for a number
of years, ilrs. Schneider is still living, at
the age of seventy-six years, her home being
in St. Louis. She is a devout member of the
Lutheran church and is deeply beloved by
all who have come within the radius of her
gentle influence. Concerning the seven chil-
dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Philip W. Schnei-
der the following data are here incorporated,
— Charles AV. is the immediate subject of this
review; Robert is president of the Schneider
Granite Company, at St. Louis; Mary is the
widow of Dr. Alois Blank and she resides in
St. Louis; Philip W., Jr., died in 1908;
Julius A. died in 1900 ; one child, a son, died
in infancy; and Miss Bertha, died December
5, 1907.
All the above children were born in St.
Louis and all were afforded college educa-
tions. Charles W. Schneider, of this notice,
was reaj-ed in his native city, to the public
schools of which place he is indebted for his
rudimentary educational training, the same
having been later supplemented by a course
in St. Benedict's College, at Atchison, Kan-
sas, in which excellent institution he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1885.
Since leaving college he has been intimately
identified with the granite business in con-
junction with his father and brothers. He
was elected vice-president of the Schneider
Granite Cotapany in 1904 and concerning
the other officers of that concern, R. P.
Schneider is president and M. Blank is secre-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
tary. The company has a capacity for hand-
ling from live hundred to one thousand men,
a number of their employes being particu-
larly skilled workmen. The plant is fully
equipped with up-to-date machinery of every
description and is managed by the subject
of this review, who has proved himself un-
usually gifted as a captain of industry. In
politics Mr. Schneider accords a stalwart
allegiance to the principles and policies pro-
mulgated by the Republican party, and while
he has never had aught of time or ambition
for political preferment of any description
he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in
sympathy with all measures and enterprises
advanced for the good of the general welfare.
In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the
Knights of the Maccabees and with the Yeo-
men. • J .1.
On February 28, 1905, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Schneider to Jliss Fannie
Bexten, a native of Folk, Missouri, and a
daughter of Benjamin Bexten, a prominent
farmer in the vicinity of that place. Mr.
and Mrs. Schneider have no children.
JvMES John Croke, county collector of
Saint Francois county, enjoys excellent
standing as a good citizen and efficient pub-
lic official and his name has previously been
identified in a favorable manner with rail-
road and mining interests. He has belonged
to this particular section of the state of
Missouri since 1883 and is very loyal to its
interests. He is very popular m the lead
belt district of Missouri, and being of Irish
descent he comes naturally by prepossessing
characteristics likely to commend him to his
fellow men. r.-. at
Mv. Croke was born m Jersey City. New
Jersey, July 12, 1864. His father, James J.
Croke, Sr., was born in Ireland and came
to America when a young man, ultimately
becoming a government employe in the cus-
tom house at New York city. He married
Hester Barry, and to this union a family of
old fashioned proportions was born, the im-
mediate subject being the fifth in order of
birth of ten children. The father remained
in the employ of the government until his
demise in 1891. His widow survives and re-
sides in Brooklyn, New York. The elder
:Mr. Croke, like his son and namesake, gave
hand and heart to the cause of- the Repub-
lican party. He was a Catholic in religion
and possessed a fine education, having been
educated for the priesthood.
James John Croke, Jr., received his edu-
cation in the public schools of his eastern
home and was but fourteen years of age
when he left the parental roof. From that
time he traveled much and made many
changes of residences and finally made an
end of his peregrinations by locating in
Saint Francois county in 1883. Since that
time he has been engaged in mining, being
for some time connected with the St. Joseph
Lead Company at Bonne Terre and about
the year 1899 he also served as locomotive
engineer. He was soon recognized as proper
material out of which to make the public
man and he made two unsuccessful runs for
sheriff, but the county was so strongly
Democratic that he lost. By no means easily
daunted, he made the race a third time and
was elected sheriff, an office he held for two
terms. Following his service in such capac-
ity he became special agent for the Missis-
sippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad Com-
pany and with this corporation he still re-
tains his position, while at the same time
performing the duties of county collector.
He was elected to this office in 1910.
On the 7th day of October, 1892, Mr.
Croke was happily married to Laura
Porter, of Bonne Terre, 'Missouri, daughter
of Captain Thomas and Elizabeth (Bowers)
Porter. Mr. and ^Irs. Croke are the par-
ents of seven promising young sons and
daughters, whose names are Harry, Hester,
Nadine, James, Earl, Elizabeth and Mabel.
The entire family are very popular in the
community, and enjoy general confidence
and regard. Mr. Croke lielongs to two
lodges, — the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
James L. Gofp. The admirable success
which has come to the subject of this sketch
is a legitimate reward of well directed effort,
for James Lonadus Goff has made his way in
the world along those lines which mark him
as a self-made man. He has been interested
in the store business in the vicinity of Desloge,
Missouri, during the greater part of his active
career and at the present time is the owner
of three stores, one on the property of the
Desloge Mining Company, one on the Federal
property and one on the St. Joe Lead prop-
erties. In addition to his general merchan-
dise interests he is president of the Bank of
Desloge, one of the most substantial financial
institutions in this section of the state, and
Mm^ X 00-07^
^
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
831
he also conducts a fine fruit farm near Bonne
Terre, this county.
A native of ilissouri, James Lonadus GoflE
was born in Jeft'erson county, on the 28th of
November, 1863. He is a son of David D.
Goff, who was born in Washington county,
Missouri, in the year 1835, and whose death
occurred in the vear 1888, at the age of
fifty-three years. The early life of David D.
Goff was passed on his father's farm, in the
work and management of which he early ac-
ciuired vigorous mental and physical qualities,
and his preliminary educational training was
obtained in the neighboring district schools.
His mother was called to eternal rest when
he was still a mere child and when he had
reached his sixteenth year he left home and
located at Valley Mines, where he lived with
an uncle and where he eventually became
superintendent of the Valley ^Mining Com-
pany. At the time of the inception of the
Civil war he gave evidence of his intrinsic
loyalty and patriotism to the cause of the
Union by enlisting as a soldier in the Federal
army, his military career extending over a
period of about a year. After the close of
the war he again entered the employ of the
Valley ^lining Company, remaining with that
concern until 1879, when he established his
home at DeSoto, where he engaged in the
real-estate business and where he became a
man in intluenee in public affairs. He was
mayor of DeSoto for four years and during
his administration many important improve-
ments were introduced, the same adding ma-
terially to the welfare of that village. He
married Miss Ellen T. "Walker, who is a
daughter of Rev. William Walker, an old
settler in Missouri and a ^Methodist Episco-
pal minister. I\Ir. and Mrs. Goff became the
parents of eight children, whose names are
here entered in respective order of birth:
William G., Frank, John, James L., Robert
L., Allie, David P. and George. William G.
Goff is engaged in the mercantile business
at DeSoto; Frank, John and George are de-
ceased ; James L. is the immediate subject of
this review : Robert L. is a resident of Shaw-
nee, Oklahoma ; Allie is the wife of Dr. W. L.
Pruett, of St. Louis, ilissouri : and David P.
is manager of the Federal store. In politics
the father was a stanch advocate of the prin-
ciples and policies promulgated by the Demo-
cratic ]5arty and in a fraternal way he was
affiliated with the time-honored ^Masonic order
and with the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows. Mrs. Goff is still living, ha\'ing reached
the age of seventy-five years, and she now
maintains her home at DeSoto, where she is
deeply admired and beloved by a wide circle
of intimate friends.
James L. Goff, the immediate subject of
this review, passed his boyhood and youth
on the home farm and up to the age of four-
teen years he attended the country schools of
St. Francois county. Subsequently he passed
three j'ears as a student in the high school
at DeSoto and while there incidentally
learned the machinist's trade. At the age of
nineteen years he went into Kansas and
thence to Nebraska, later returning to Mis-
souri and entering the employ of the Valley
Alining Company, as manager of their store
and as paymaster of the Company. He con-
tinued in the employ of the Valley ilining
Company for a period of eight years and in
1892 he came to Desloge, where he entered
into a partnership alliance ^\'ith Oscar S.
Florence, a sketch of whose career appears
elsewhere in this work. The firm of Goff &
Florence continued for a period of ten years,
at the expiration of which Mr. Goft' disposed
of his interest in the "Company" store, as
their place of business was called. Mr. Goff
now has a string of grocery stores, the main
store being located on the property of the
Desloge Jlining Company, with two branch
stores located respectively on the Federal
property and on the St. Joe Lead Company
properties. ^Ir. Goff is also heavily interested
in the real-estate business, being the owner
of several hundred acres of lead land and
considerable city realt.v. He is president of
the Bank of Desloge and in addition to his
other business interests has a fine farm near
Bonne Terre. where he is constructing a
large artificial lake, covering ten acres of land,
the same being fed by three springs. On this
same property are five thousand fruit trees.
Mr. Goff is improving this farm with the ulti-
mate object of making a fine summer resort
and orchard.
On the 22nd of June. 1887, Mr. Goff was
united in marriage to iliss Annie Goodin, a
daughter of Austin Goodin, a prominent and
influential farmer in St. Francois county,
Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Goff became the
parents of four children, of whom but one is
living at the present time, namely, Olga V.,
whose birth occurred on the 11th of April,
1894.
In politics ]Mr. Goff is a stanch supporter
of the Democratic party and his religious
faith is in harmony with the teachings of the
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Presbyterian church, in the various depart-
ments of which he is a zealous and active
worker. In fraternal affairs he is a valued
and appreciative member of the ]\Iasonie
order, the Knights of the Tented ilaccabees
and the ilodern Woodmen of America. He
has ever manifested a deep and sincere in-
terest in educational affairs and has been a
member of the board of education for a period
of twelve years. It is largely through his
influence that Desloge is now putting up a
fine thirty-five thousand dollar school build-
ing. ]Mr. Goff is a man of fine executive abil-
ity and tremenduous vitality and since his
splendid success in life is the direct result of
his own well applied endeavors it is the more
gratifying to contemplate. He is a man of
honor and high principle and is everywhere
accorded the unciualified confidence and
esteem of his fellow citizens.
Marion Francis Tucker. At Hollywood,
in Dunklin county, Marion F. Tucker has for
many years been accounted one of the most
enterprising and successful farmers and busi-
ness men, a citizen whose integrity and good
judgment are thoroughly esteemed by his
neighbors, and a man whose individual suc-
cess has meant the welfare of the community.
Having spent most of his life in this vicinity,
he has been identified with the country
through practically all its stages of progress
from a wilderness to one of the best agricul-
tural regions in ilissouri, and he has shared
in and helped promote this prosperous con-
dition.
He was born in Gibson county, Tennessee,
January 23, 1863. In 1869 the family came
to the locality where he was reared and where
he has spent the rest of his life, his home
place being three miles west and one mile
north of Horuersville. For several winters
he attended school at Coldwater. and all his
schooling was obtained in this vicinity. He
lived at home, helping his mother and father,
up to the time of his marriage and for several
years after. He was married on December
24, 188.5, to Miss Anna Belle Bailey. They
had fifteen years of happy married life, and
she passed away in 1901. She was the mother
of eight children, and the four still living
are : Eva, who married Oscar Vandiver ; Loid,
born Januar\' 31, 1893 ; Modie, born October
16, 1897: and Cari, born August 15, 1900.
He and his wife continued to live in the old
home place for a number of years, his father
having built another home for himself. The
father sold IMarion and his brother a farm,
and when they divided it the old home was on
the brother's part. Soon afterward, on his
father's death, he moved to the home place
and lived with his mother. He .had bought
his first forty acres on time froui his father,
and while living there got eighty acres of
his present place. He in companj' with his
father, two brothers and a brother-in-law,
acquired a mill property on the farm where
he lived, and conducted a gin there and then
established a saw mill. The interest in this
mill he had traded for the eighty acres on
which his present residence is located, it be-
ing situated one-half mile north and one-
quarter of a mile west of Hollywood. The
land was cheap when he got it and was cov-
ered with timber. While he was helping
with the mill and working his home forty he
cleared the eighty, and had it nearly all ready
for cultivation before he moved on to it.
Another of his enterprises was the first
store at what is now the village of Hollywood,
but before the railroad reached this point the
place was called Klondike. He owned this
store in partnership and left most of the
management to his partner, IMr. N. B. Stone.
This first stoi-e was burned down. In 1900
Mr. Tucker built a residence and moved to
his present farm. At that time he owned a
hundred and twenty acres. He has since
traded his original forty for another forty
ad.i'oining and has added by three purchases
until he now has a splendid farm of two hun-
dred acres, all of it the fruit of his own enter-
prise. With the exception of a nice grove of
five acres that adds to the attractiveness of
his home, he has all the acreage vinder culti-
vation. Corn and wheat are his principal
crops, and some stock. His farm is worth a
hundred dollars an acre, and is improved with
a good house and a barn fifty by sixty feet.
Since the marriage of his daughter in 1910
he has a housekeeper for his home and other
children. His trading point is Senath. In
politics he is a Democrat, and he is a member
of the ^Modern Woodmen of America at Card-
well.
Joseph A. Reyburn is the third to bear
that name in Missouri and is of the fourth
generation of a family which has assisted by
its sterling worth and good citizenship in the
growth and advancement of the section in
which its interests have been centered. His
great-grandfather, Joseph Reyburn, a Scotch-
man, was indeed, one of the most noted pio-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
833
neers of the state. The subject, who was
christened in his honor, is county clerk of
Iron county and is one of its most capable
oiScials, but preceded his public service by a
commercial career. He is at present treas-
urer of the County Clerks' Association of the
state of ilissouri.
Glancing at Mr. Reyburn's forebears, it is
noted that his great-grandfather, Joseph
Reyburn, was born in Scotland, in the vicinity
of Edinburgh, and possessed those qualifica-
tions which make her sons "loved at home,
revered abroad." He immigrated in early
life to America and located in Montgomery
county, Virginia. He remained in the Old
Dominion for a few .years and then went to
St. Louis, Missouri, where he made the sec-
ond cash purchase of land at the Missouri
land office, which was then located at St.
Louis. He secured his land in the Belleview
Valle}', now Iron county, then Washington
count}'. Iron count.y being made up from
divisions cut off from Saint Francois, Wash-
ington, Dent, Crawford, Madison and Rey-
nolds counties. Having made that important
transaction, Mr. Reyburn brought his family
on from Virginia and settled upon his new
property, which at that time was heavily
timbered. It now consists of several fine
farms and is extremely valuable. He engaged
in many improvements and continued to
reside upon his fine estate until his demise.
His son, Joseph N. Reyburn, resided on the
same property until he too was summoned to
the "Undiscovered Country." He was a
planter and both he and his father owned
slaves which they brought from Virginia.
Samuel A. Reyburn was the son of Joseph
N. and the father of him whose name in-
augurates this review. He was born in Cale-
donia, Washington county, Missouri, and was
there reared. He became a man of some
public prominence and usefulness and served
as sheriff and collector of Washington coun-
ty in the early '50s. He was a stanch Dem-
ocrat and later, when Iron county was
established, he was appointed town commis-
sioner of Ironton. During the Civil war he
served for a short time as a Confederate sol-
dier, and .joined Captain White's company,
the first ever recruited in Iron county. He
died in 1883, aged sixty-one years. He was
a member of the Methodist church and of the
ancient and august Masonic fraternity. He
took as his wife Jlary J. Robinson, who was
born in Washington county, Missouri, near
Caledonia, and was a daughter of Archibald
Robinson, who brought his family from
Dlaeksburg, Montgomery county, Virginia,
some eighty-five or ninety years ago. He was
a millwright and built one of the first grist
mills in Washington county, Missouri, a
water mill on Clear Creek, afterwards known
as Bryan's mill, and it was patronized by
people from a wide scope of territory. The
Robinson family located in Washington coun-
ty, Missouri, and Archibald served in the
Mexican war. Mrs. Reyburn, who was a
member of the Methodist Episcopal church,
South, survived her husband until 1900, her
death occurring at the age of seventy-five
years.
The son of such worthy and estimable
parents, Joseph A. Reyburn, began life
auspiciously. He was one of a family of
eight children, equally divided as to sons" and
daughters, and of the number, besides him-
self, only two sisters are living, namely: Mrs.
A. B. ilcKinuey, of Bronaugli. Vernon coun-
ty, Missouri; and Mrs. Fannie L. Logan, of
Belleview, Missouri. Mr. Reyburn was reared
in Iron county and attended the common
schools and Westminster College. Upon
beginning his career as an active factor in
the world of affairs he engaged in the mer-
cantile business as a clerk at Ironton and
later at Piedmont, Missouri, but subsequently
abandoned this to take up the work of a
commercial traveler, in which capacity he
remained for twenty years. He represented
various wholesale shoe houses, such as Claflin
Allen, Orr Shoe Company, Peters Shoe Com-
pany, and others.
Mr. Reyburn laid the foundations of a
happy life companionship when, on the 29th
day of November, 1882, he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Mary A. Green, their union
being celebrated at Iron Mountain, Saint
Francois county. Mrs. Reyburn was born in
the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, but was
reared in Missouri and is a daughter of J.
D. and Judith P. (Higgs) Green, the latter
a native of KentuckJ^ J. D. Green was as-
sistant superintendent of the Iron Mountain
Iron Companj' for many years antl eai-lier in
his career was superintendent of the Bellwood
Iron Works, at Bellwood. Tennessee. In the
year 1892 he went to the city of St. Louis
and engaged in the live stock commission
business there for a period of ten years. He
died at Ironton some years ago, an honored
and influential citizen.
Mr. and Mrs. Reyburn are the parents of
two children, both of whom claim Iron Moun-
834
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
tain as their birthplace. Mabelle, the elder
daughter, is at home aud holds the position
of superintendent of music and art in the
Bonne Terre school, of Bonne Terre, Mis-
souri. She was educated at Hardin College,
jMexico, ^Missouri, and in 1910 and 1911
attended the Northwestern University, at
Chicago, where she took post-graduate work.
The younger daughter, Ruby, received her .
higher education at Hardin College and the
Cape Girardeau Normal School and at pres-
ent holds the office of deputy county clerk of
Iron county, ^lissouri, having first under-
taken its duties some two and one-half years
ago. The Reyburn family maintain a de-
lightful and hospitable home and are promi-
nent in the man.v-sided life of the community.
The name is indeed extremely well and favor-
ably known in Southeastern ^Missouri, not
alone through the present generation but by
those who have gone before. Politically the
head of the house is Democratic and in his
fraternal relations he is a member of the
Masonic lodge and the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. Mrs. Reyburn and
her eldest daughter are members of the Metho-
dist church. South, and iliss Ruby is a com-
municant of the Episcopal church. John V.
Logan, first presiding judge of the county
court, and John Cole, first sheriff of Iron
count.v, were both third cousins of Joseph A.
Reyburn. One brother, Samuel P., was as-
sessor for eight or ten years.
T. N. McHaney. a prominent and influen-
tial citizen of Kennett, T. N. McHaney has
long been identified with public affairs, aud
is now rendering excellent service as police
judge, and as notary public. The several
positions of trust and responsibility to which
he has been called have been filled in a man-
ner reflecting the highest credit upon him-
self, and proving that the confidence so freely
given him by the people and the trust reposed
in his abilities were not unworthily bestowed.
He was born July 11, 1858, in ilarion, Illi-
nois, and in July, 1879, having attained his
majority, came to Mis.souri.
Locating at Maiden, Dunklin county, Mr.
]McHaney was for a short time there em-
ployed as a clerk in the general store of his
brother, R. H. McHane.y, who was engaged
in mercantile pvirsuits at Maiden from 1876
until his death, in December, 1910. He also
had a branch store at Hornersville. and of
this :\Ir. McHaney had charge in 1880 and
1881. R. H. McHaney was a man of promi-
nence in the community and an active worker
in the Republican ranks.
Severing his connection with his brother in
1882, Mr. McHaney came to Kennett in that
year, and having opened a store of general
merchandise conducted it successfully until
1888. While living in Hornersville. he served
as postmaster, and in 1882, during the admin-
istration of President Arthur, was made post-
master at Kennett, and served through the
administration of President Harrison, being
succeeded by a Democrat when Cleveland
was inaugurated as president. During Presi-
dent McKinley's administration, Mr. Mc-
Haney was again appointed postmaster at
Kennett, and served for ten consecutive years.
From 1897 until 1900 the business of the post
office was greatly increased, in the former
year the office being changed from a fourth
class office to a presidential office.
A stanch Republican, Jlr. McHaney has
been a faithful worker in party ranks. For
twelve years he was secretary of the Four-
teenth Congressional Committee, and has been
active in local and state committees. Since
leaving the post offtee Mr. McHaney has
operated a farm adjoining Kennett, having
two hundred and forty acres under cultiva-
tion, corn and cotton being his principal
crops. As police judge and notary public
he is well known throughout the community,
his business necessarily bringing him in eon-
tact with many people whom he might not
otherwise meet.
In February, 1883, Mr. McHaney was
united in marriage with Louisa ]\Iarsh, who
was born in Dunklin countj', near Kennett.
Her father, John H. Marsh, came from Vir-
ginia to Dunklin county prior to the Civil
war, and here resided until his death, at the
age of sixty-five j'ears. He was quite promi-
nent in public affairs, and for many years
served as county clerk. Mr. and Mrs. Mc-
Haney have no children of their own, but
they have brought up three orphans from
childhood until reaching maturity, rearing
and educating them as if they were their
own, namely : Robert IMorgan, William Ed-
mund, and ]\Iinnie HoUowaj', the latter of
whom is still a member of the family. Mr.
and Mrs. McHaney are members of the Chris-
tian church. Mr. McHaney has alwaj's been
a "joiner," even having joined the Ku Klux.
He is a member of the Knights of Pythias
and a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, in which he is quite active, hav-
ing served officially in the Grand Lodge.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
835
iliLTOX Hawkins, an old and promiueut
merohaut of Blaekwell, St. Francois county,
is a native of Washington county, !JIis-
souri, born on the 2nd of February, 1849.
His father, Augustus Hawkins, who was also
a native of that part of Southeast ^Missouri,
was engaged continuously in farming until
the Iron ilountain Railroad commenced to be
pushed through his home territory, when he
engaged in contract grading in connection
with the enterprise which has done so much
for the whole state. He then returned to ag-
ricultural pursuits. As a voter Augustus
Hawkins was a Democrat but was never an
office seeker or a politician in any sense of the
word. His marriage to iliss Elizabeth Pin-
son resulted in thirteen children, of whom
Milton is the eldest survivor of the family;
the father died in 1889 and the mother in the
preceding year, both being constant attend-
ants at the Baptist church and active work-
ers in all its movements for the good and ele-
vation of the community.
The early life of ililton Hawkins was spent
on his father 's farm and in obtaining an edu-
cation through the common schools of "Wash-
ington county. In 1872, when twenty-three
years of age, he became a citizen of Black-
well and one of its active young merchants,
forming a partnership with Clay Wallen.
This association continued until the death of
the latter, in 187-4, when the brother, Chris-
topher Wallen, entered into a like business
relation, ilr. Hawkins' brother, Newton,
was ilr. Wallen's successor as a partner in
the business; then its founder conducted it
alone for some three years; for the succeed-
ing four years he was in partnership with his
nephew, H. N. ilcGrady, after which he was
sole proprietor until 1900, when ilr. ]\IcGrady
again assumed an interest in the well estab-
lished business and retained it until 1909. In
the year named ilr. Hawkins' son-in-law, L.
E. Cole, purchased the business outright,
thus concluding an active and successful
mercantile career covering the unusually long
period of thirty-seven years. Although a
firm believer in Democratic principles, he is
"out of politics" for the very good reason
that he has never been in them. Masonry,
however, has always strongh^ appealed to his
sentiments of good fellowship and "square
dealing" in the world, and he has long been
an earnest member of that order.
In 1881 :\Ir. Hawkins wedded ]Miss Kitty
McCormick, of Jefferson county, and one
child. Lucy Newton (now ]Mrs. Cole), was
born to their union. Mrs. Hawkins was born
November 18, 1861, and died on the 19th of
May, 1911. Her father, Thomas F. died
when she was quite young, but she was reared
by a loving mother of rare judgment and de-
veloped into an affectionate, fiue woman, and
a wife of beautiful and elevating character.
In her religious faith she was a ^lethodist
of broad charity and intellectual views; and
the husband and father is of the same belief
and holds the same Christlike attitude toward
his fellows.
Owen Alonzo Smith, M. D. Among the
gifted medical and surgical practitioners in
Farmiugton and Saint Francois county Dr.
Owen Alonzo Smith, specialist in eye, ear,
nose and throat, stands preeminent. A man
who keeps ever in touch with the march of
progress in his field of usefulness, he devotes
his whole life to his profession and is highly
esteemed by both fraternity and laity. In
glancing over the achievement of a man such
as he, one is reminded of the lines of Pope,
"A wise phj'sician, skill 'd our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal."
Dr. Smith was born in Jerse\wille, Illi-
nois, March 31, 1868, a son of Alfred Alonzo
Smith. The father was born in 1846, in Illi-
nois, and received his education in the com-
mon schools of that locality and period, which
means that it was of a somewhat limited
character. When quite young he learned the
copper trade and he has followed this in con-
nection with his farming operations through-
out almost the entire course of his life. In
latter j^ears, it is true, he has given up cooper-
ing and has devoted his time to farming. He
was married at about the age of tweutj' years
to Miss Isabelle Amerika ]Miller. their union
being solemnized at Jerseyville. Illinois. ]Mrs.
Smith was the daughter of Dr. ililler, a
dentist of Jersejn'ille. At the breaking out
of the Civil war, A. A. Smith enlisted in the
Union army and acted as a drummer in that
great struggle. "Wlien peace returned to the
devastated land, the young man came back to
ilissouri and bought a farm in Jefferson
county, his land being a part of the Kennet
tract. He engaged in its cultivation for about
eight years and then on account of ill health
abandoned the great basic industry and took
up his residence in Nashville, Illinois, where
he engaged in the cooper business again.
After a period of years devoted to his old
trade, Mr. Smith came back to his farm in
Jeft'erson county and upon its fertile and
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
well-situated acres he is now living. He and
his wife are the parents of three sons, — Owen
A., the immediate subject of this review;
Ulj'sses Scott, a physician at Hannibal, Mis-
souri; and Harold Howard, engaged in the
practice of the law in Oklahoma. In politics
Mr. Smith, the elder, is in harmony with the
men and measures of the Prohibition party
in later years, and was a Republican in early
life; he and his wife hold membership in the
Presbyterian church ; and in his lodge affilia-
tion he is a member of the ancient and august
Masonic order.
Dr. Owen A. Smith received his early edu-
cation in the public schools of Nashville, Illi-
nois, and after finishing their curriculum he
entered the serious walks of life as a wage
earner as book-keeper in a store at Festus,
Missouri. He began the study of medicine
in 1889, in the medical department of Wash-
ington University, at St. Louis, and took his
degree as a physician in 1892. For a year he
served as an interne in the city hospital in St.
Louis and then for a like period acted as as-
sistant physician for the Crystal Plate Glass
Company at Crystal City. Subsequent to that
he became associated with Dr. C. P. Poston
at Bonne Terre and was surgeon for two im-
portant corporations, — the St. Joe Lead Com-
pany and the ilississippi River & Bonne
Terre Railroad. Believing that the greatest
usefulness can be attained through specializa-
tion, Dr. Smith went to St. Louis and took
special work in the ej^e and ear, and having
exhausted the resources of that metropolis
he went on to New York, where in the famous
Post-Graduate College he continued his
studies, gaining practical experience at the
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. His first
identification with Farmington was in 1902,
when he began practice as a specialist in the
eye, ear, nose and throat. He is a widely
known member of the profession and is con-
nected with some of the most important or-
ganizations of the same, his name being upon
the rolls of the American Medical Associa-
tion, the City Hospital iledical Society of
St. Louis, the State Medical Association, the
Saint Francois County Medical Association
and the South-Eastern Missouri Medical As-
sociation. He is also affiliated with the order
whose chief object is to extend the principle
of human brotherhood, — the Masonic — and in
the matter of religious conviction he is affil-
iated with the Christian church.
Dr. Smith was happily married when, in
December, 1893, he was united to Miss Nellie
E. Swink, of Festus, Missouri, their marriage
being solemnized while the subject was in
practice at Crystal City. Mrs. Smith is a
daughter of J. E. Swink, a well known citizen
of Festus, ]\Iissouri. The Doctor and his
wife share their charming home with two
sons, whose names are Laurence Augustus
and Harry Owen.
D. B. Pankey, cashier of the Bank of Ken-
nett, would never have attained the promi-
nence he now holds if he had not possessed
a discriminating quality to a very large ex-
tent. Not that he is a negative quality by
any means; he is most decidedlj' alive and
full of enterprise, but he has put on one side
all those things which though good in them-
selves have no part in his life. He has
known what to accept and what to reject,
where to triast and where to suspect. He
has chosen this thing and that thing as the
ones of all others he would choose to have in
his own life and the result is the man as he
is to-day.
D. B. Pankey was boi-n near Clarkton,
Dunklin county, IMissouri, July 17, 1861.
His father was David Y. Pankey, born at
Richmond, Virginia, where he received his
education and was brought up on the farm.
He became a tobacco grower and dealer in
the south, owning a great number of slaves
to cultivate and harvest the tobacco, etc.
He always treated them in the most consid-
erate manner and they were devoted to
him. He married Miss Sally Jones, a
sprightly young woman, a native of Rich-
mond, like himself. All business was begin-
ning to be very much demoralized in the
south and Mr. Pankey was losing money on
his plantation. He, therefore, sold off his
plantation for the small sum he could real-
ize, took his wafe and some of his slaves and
brought them to Missouri. He settled at
Clarkton, where he started a store and also
bought a small farm. In 1861, when the war
finally broke out, he raised a regiment for
the Confederate army, he being its colonel.
He served throughout the war, at the end of
which time he set his slaves free, but they
never lost the feeling of affection and devo-
tion towards him. but would have cheerfully
laid down their lives for him at any time.
One of them, Charles Birthwright, with his
wife Bettie, live in IMissouri and are leaders
among the colored people of Clarkton.
Colonel Pankey lived in Cardwell, Missouri,
later and died there in January, 1910, at the
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
837
age of seventy-four, his wife having died
many years before. The Colonel served the
county as county collector. He was a man
who had served his country m the army and
in civil aii'airs. He was very well known all
over the county and universally respected.
The Civil war commenced the year that D.
B. arrived in the world. He remembers
nothing of its horrors, but does remember the
loss of his mother when he was vei-y young.
He was brought up by his father, who did his
best to train him in the right way. The re-
sults seem to show that his methods were ef-
fective, if at times severe. D. B. received
his education in the schools of Clarkton, in
the Southeastern Missouri Normal at Cape
Girardeau and on his father's farm and in
his father's store, learning as much at the
two latter as he did in school. In 1883 he
was appointed deputy county clerk, under
Robert IMills. After two years Mr. Mills died
and Mr. Pankey was appointed in his place.
At the end of his term he was re-elected, mak-
ing his time of service sis years in all as clerk
and two years as deputy clerk. He was at
one time mayor of Kennett, rendering the
best of satisfaction to all political parties
and to the people in general. He was one of
the organizers of the Bank of Kennett, which
was started January 19, 1891, with a capital
of fifteen thousand dollars. T. E. Baldmn
was the first president, W. F. Shelton, the
vice president and D. B. Pankey the cashier.
Mr. Baldwin was president until January,
1901, when failing health forced him to re-
sign. He died soon afterward. He was suc-
ceeded by T. R. R. Ely, who held the office
for one year, "W. F. Shelton, Junior, being
elected president in January, 1905, and he
still retains the office. W. F. Shelton con-
tinued to be a director as long as be lived.
For a time W. F. Shelton, Junior, was vice
president, the office that is now held by T.
R. R. Ely. Mr. Pankey has remained the
ea.shier of the bank ever since its organization.
The capital is now twenty-five thousand dol-
lars, with a certified surplus of twenty-five
thousand dollars and undivided profits of five
thousand dollars The deposits are about two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The
bank owns the building in which it does busi-
ness and the stock is all owned locally. They
do a strictly banking business and have never
missed an annual dividend. Mr. Pankey is
president of the Kennett Ice and Electric
Company, having helped to organize it. He
is also president of the Kennett Store Com-
pany, carrying a line of men's furnishing
goods. He is president of the St. Louis, Ken-
nett and Southeastern Railroad Company,
having succeeded R. H. Jones at his death.
Mr. Pankey is a director and treasurer of the
Dunklin County Publishing Company, which
is the owner of the Dunklin Democrat. In
1904 he was chairman of the County Com-
mittee on the local ticket, when local
option took effect in this county, and was
active in that fight and the county has re-
mained local option. There were then five
saloons in Kennett, a town of fifteen hundred
at that time, and Mr. Pankey 's life was
threatened several times during that cam-
paign. The same issue came up in the city
of Kennett in 1909 and he was chairman of
the committee in this campaign and won by
nine hundred votes. He is a Mason, a mem-
ber of Kennett Lodge, A. F. & A. il.. No. 68,
of Helen Chapter, No. 117, Campbell Coun-
cil No. 33, of Campbell, Missouri, and of
Maiden Commandery, No. 61, of Maiden.
In May, 1888, Mr. Pankey married Josie E.
Rayburn, of Dunklin county, to which union
three children have been born, Hugh B., who
is a law student in the University of Mis-
souri, Russell R. and one deceased.
One would not imagine that Mr. Pankey
would find room in his bus.y life to do much
in church work, but he is as a matter of fact
an elder in the Presbyterian church, nor does
he confine his religion to his attendance at
church and to his fulfilment of the duties
that devolve on an elder, but he takes it with
him in his every day life, it is at the bank,
and in his various other occupations through-
out the day. That is the kind of religion
which counts after all. Religion has ceased
to be an emotion which finds relief in talk,
but it is a living force, which makes a man
more honest, more considerate of his fellows,
more active in his efforts to aid mankind.
Any other kind of a religion is of no real
value, but that is the sort that Mr. Pankey
practices. A man of such beliefs and actions
could not fail to be a power for betterment
in the coinmunity and as such Mr. Pankey 's
fellow citizens regard him.
T. B. Drum is the youngest of thirteen
children born to John and Mary Fulbright
Drum. Thirteen is said to be an \mlucky
number, but IMr. Drum's career has been of
the sort to help clear the reputation of the
maligned number. His parents were both
born in North Carolina and his father came
838
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
to Missouri at the age of eight, in the year
1816. Ten of the children of John Drum
lived to maturity.
T. B. Drum was born March 10, 185-4, iii
Cape Girardeau county. He received his
education in the district schools and until he
was twenty-five, worked on the farm. Prom
1872 to 1881 he operated a threshing machine
during the seasons, going about to the dif-
ferent farms. He was one year in Perry
county and spent some four years in Sedge-
wictv'ille, in a store and on the farm before
going into partnership with his brother in
a mercantile concern at Sedgewickville.
After two years T. B. Drum bought out
his brother Robert and since 1883 has con-
ducted the business alone. He has built up
an unusually large trade and does an exten-
sive business in retail prodiice exchange with
the residents of the surrounding country.
The territory from which he draws his cus-
tomers extends for miles beyond Sedgewick-
ville. His ten thousand dollar stock of mer-
chandise is housed in a fine business block
and his home is one of the elegant residences
of the town. Aside frora his store, Mr. Drum
has extensive interests in Sedgewickville real
estate and is a stockholder in the Bollinger
County Bank. He owns one hundred and
ninety-five acres of land in the county, on
which he keeps some stock, besides doing
general farming, and has investments in
Colorado mines and real estate. He is a
notary public in Sedgewickville.
On February 27, 1883, Mr. Drum was mar-
ried to Miss Flora Octavia Howard, daugh-
ter of [Monroe Howard of Cape Girardeau
county. Only one of their three children is
living'. Myrtle, now ilrs. Edward Crites. On
July 27," 1911, Howard Leroy Crites was
born, and Mr. Drum became a grandfather
before reaching his three-score years.
At Cape Girardeau Mr. Drum is a mem-
ber of the Elks' lodge. No. 639. Politically
he gives his support to the Democratic party.
Benjamin Franklin Towl. Missouri has
been the home of Benjamin Franklin Towl
as many years as have elapsed since his birth,
he being a native son of the state. This
gentleman, who is the cashier of the Bank of
Leadwood, is also the organizer of that sub-
stantial institution and he has given his best
strength and abilities to the furtherance of
its affairs.
:\Ir. Towl was born in Caledonia, Washing-
ton county, December 12, 1872, the son of
William Towl, a native of Hibaldstow, Eng-
land. The elder Mr. Towl left the old coun-
try at the age of sixteen years and crossed
the sea to find his fortunes in the "land of
the free and the home of the brave." In a
short time he found his way to Potosi, Mis-
souri, and soon found a field of usefulness as
a clerk in a store. As he was an ambitious
and thrifty young fellow, in a very short time
he had opened a store of his own at Cale-
donia. He married Miss Anna Kendall, of
Potosi, and to their union six children were
born, he whose name inaugurates this review
being the youngest of the number. William
Towl died in Annapolis, Iron countj', in 1890,
and his cherished and devoted wife survived
him for more than a decade, her demise
occurring in 1900. He w^s Republican in
politics and was known as a supporter of all
such causes as seemed likely to him to prove
of benefit to the whole of society. He at-
tended the Presbyterian church.
Benjamin Franklin Towl spent his earliest
days at Caledonia, and was about nine years
of age when his parents removed to Anna-
polis. Thus his public school education was
divided between these two towns. He sub-
sequently entered the Belleview Collegiate
Institute and there received higher instruc-
tion. When his school days were over, he
entered the employ of his brother's firm,
Towl & Russell, of Marquand, Madison coun-
ty, these gentlemen being engaged in the lum-
ber business. The year 1897 marks a radical
change of occupation for the subject and his
first identification with the banking business,
for in that year he was offered and accepted
a position as assistant cashier in the Saint
Francois County Bank at Farmington, Mis-
souri. After holding this position for four
years and learning much about banking, he
became cashier of the Bank of Saint Gene-
vieve and retained that office for two .years,
"displaying sound banking knowledge and in-
defatigable zeal in building up its affairs.
His next move was to come to Leadwood and
here on September 27, 1905, he opened the
Bank of Leadwood, he himself taking the
position of cashier. The other officers are as
follows : John S. Towl, president ; Thomas R.
Tolleson, vice president; William Towl, as-
sistant cashier. The Bank of Leadwood is
incorporated for ten thousand dollars and in
its career of six years has experienced a
.sound prosperity.
Mr. Towl was happily married on the 16th
dav of November, 1905, to Miss Emma Mark-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
839
ert, daughter of C. Markert, of Muskogee,
Oklahoma. They have one child, a small son,
christened Benjamin Franklin Jr.
Ed. Buelison. In the years of the twen-
tieth centurj' industry and good management
have everywhere been well rewarded in the
field of agriculture, but perhaps nowhere to
a more generous degree than in Southeast
JMissouri. One of the citizens of this section
who would readily be named among the suc-
cessful farmers who a few years ago were at
the bottom of the ladder is Mr. Ed. Burlison,
whose farming interests are near Horners-
vdlle in Dunklin county.
Born April 29, 1869, in Lawrence county,
Tennessee, his father of Irish stock, originally
from North Carolina, and his mother of Ger-
man ancestry, he grew up in the Tennessee
mountain district and never had the advan-
tages of schools. Though he spent the first
thirty years of his life about his native place,
he was entirely without means when he
arrived in Southeast Missouri in 1898. With
his family he located on twenty acres of
rented land near where he now lives, and
stayed there until he had made two crops,
which netted him three hundred dollars This
money he used as advance payment on a farm
of forty acres worth twenty dollars an acre,
and got the rest on time. He moved to this
place in August, 1899, and in the following
May his wife died. She was Miss Ella Pipk-
ings, of Tennessee, and her three children
now living are : William, who married Miss
Maj' ilcCauliff and lives in Maiden; John,
at Maiden; and Miss Pearl, at home. ilr.
Burlison 's present wife was Miss Bertha
Statler, who was born in Bollinger county,
Missouri, Jlay 22, 1881. They have the fol-
lowing children at home : Mabel, Pat, Mike
and Ruby.
From the time he made his first purchase
of a farm Mr. Burlison has steadily pros-
pered. He later bought another forty for
one thousand dollars, and he has refused
twelve thousand dollars for these eighty
acres. At the present time he has one hun-
dred and sixty acres within three quarters
of a mile of Hornersville, and it is worth one
hundred and fifty dollars an acre. He has
three houses on his lands, and his rents
amount to eight hundred dollars a year aside
from the home place. He has a good home
and is rearing his family in comfort, and he
enjoys the thorough esteem of the community.
Fraternally he is a member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of
the World and the Benevolent Protective
Order of Elks. In politics he is a Democrat.
James il. Logan, who is now living in vir-
tual retirement on his fine farm of three hun-
dred and eighty acres, eligibly located a
mile and three-quarters east of Belleview, in
Iron county, Missouri, is one of the promi-
nent and influential agriculturists of this sec-
tion of the state, where he has resided during
the greater portion of his life time. He was
born six miles northwest of his present home,
the date of his nativity being the 2nd of No-
vember, 1833, and he is a son of John V. and
Elizabeth H. (jMallow) Logan. The father
was born at Salem, Virginia, in 1809, and he
came to ilissouri in 1821, with his parents,
James and Lucy (VanLear) Logan, both
of whom were likewise bom in the Old Do-
minion commonwealth and who settled in
Washington county, now Iron county, after
their arrival in Missouri. Here James Logan
purchased a farm, which he improved and on
which he continued to reside until his death,
on the 25th of December, 1832. The Logan
family is of Scotch extraction and the vari-
ous members of the name have ever been
devout Presbyterians in their religious faith.
Lucy (VanLear) Logan was born on the 30th
of December, 1784, in Virginia, and she was
summoned to eternal rest in Iron county,
Missouri, on the 25th of January, 1859. Mr.
and Mrs. James Logan became the parents of
fourteen children, none of whom are living
at the present time. Hannah, born on the
19th of May, 1808, married ilr. Bonney and
they are both deceased; John, father of him
whose name forms the caption for this re-
view, was born on the 17th of October, 1809,
and died on the 22nd of February, 1875;
Sarah L., born November 29, 1811, is deceased,
as are also Margaret Ann, boi-n April 9,
1813; Eliza Jane, born February 1, 1815,
and who died at Ironton ; Lucy, born Septem-
ber 13, 1816, and died at Potosi, Missouri;
Mary Park, born June 19, 1818; and Lila,
born November 1, 1819, and died at Potosi,
^Missouri ; Angeline, born ilay 19, 1821, died
in Texas; Eveline Martha was born on the
3d of January, 1823, and died at the old
homestead; Lueza, born January 26, 1824,
died at the old homestead; James D., born
December 28, 1825, died at the age of four-
teen in Reynolds county, Missouri ; Robert
840
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
B., born June 10, 1827, died August 2, 1883,
at Caledonia, Missouri; and Joseph A., born
November 9, 1829, died on the 11th of Octo-
ber, 1860, in Collinsville, Illinois.
John V. Logan was reared and resided in
Belleview valley all his life. He was a cabi-
net-maker and carpenter by trade and in
later life was a merchant at Ironton, where
he resided for ten years and where he was
the efficient incumbent of the office of post-
master for a number of years. At one time
he also served as justice of the peace, was
judge of Iron county for several years, and
for one term was a member of the general
assembly in the Missouri state legislature.
He was originally an old-line AVhig in pol-
itics and later transferred his allegiance to
the Republican party. He was a devout
member of the Presbyterian church at Iron-
ton, in which he was an elder. His wife,
whose maiden name was Elizabeth ilallow,
was born thirty miles from Fincastle, in Vir-
ginia, on the 23d of iMarch, 1811, and she died
on the 7th of April, 1892, having survived
her honored husband for seventeen years.
Barnabas Mallow, a brother of Mrs. Logan,
is now living near Palmer, Missouri, he being
ninety-one years of age on the 11th of Octo-
ber, 1911.
James M. Logan, the immediate subject of
this review, was the eldest in order of birth
in a family of seven children, and has resided
in the neighborhood of his birth place during
most of his life time, having spent twelve
years at one time in Reynolds county, Mis-
souri. Without moving, he has lived in
Ripley, Shannon and Rejiiolds counties and
also with no moves has lived in Washington
and Iron counties. He has been identified
with agricultural operations during most of
his active career and he is now the owner of
a finely improved estate of three hundred and
eighty-five acres, sections of which are oper-
ated by tenants. In politics jMr. Logan is an
uncompromising advocate of the principles
for which the Democratic party stands
sponsor, and while he has never manifested
aught of ambition for political preferment
of any kind he served for two years as public
administrator of Iron county. In the time-
honored ]\Iasonic order he is a valued and ap-
preciative member of ilosaic Lodge, No. 351,
Free and Accepted IMasons ; and of the Chap-
ter at Ironton, Royal Arch Masons. He was
formerly affiliated with the Independent Or-
der of Odd Fellows and he and his wife are
zealous members of the Presbyterian church.
in which Mr. Logan has been an elder for
many years and in the various departments
of whose work they are most active factors.
On the 19th of November, 1857, was cele-
brated the marriage of jMr. Logan to Miss
Ann Stejjhens, who was born on the present
Logan estate on the 27th of IMarch, 1838, and
who is a daughter of Joseph L. and Louisa
W. (Wyatt) Stephens. Louisa W. Wyatt
was eldest of these children : Louisa W., Susan
H., James J., Mary E., William S., Edward
A., Minerva J. (residing at Caledonia), Rice
C, Benjamin L., and Nancy H., all deceased
except Minerva J. 3Ir. Stephens was one of
eleven children, whose names are here entered
in respective order of birth — Joseph L., ^lary,
Ann, David B., George W., Isaac C, John D.,
Brookings, Eveline, Berthena and Susan.
Joseph L. Stephens was born near Bowling
Green, Kentucky, on the 29th of December,
1812, and he died on the 15th of September,
1885, in Iron county. He came to Missouri
in 1824 as a small boy and after reaching
years of discretion learned the stone-mason's
trade, following that line of enterprise for a
number of years. At one time he was suc-
cessfully engaged in the general merchandise
business in Iron county and he was also ex-
tensively interested in farming operations.
In politics he was a Democrat and he served
for two terms — eight years — as county judge.
For a period of ten j-ears, from 1865 to 1875,
he was engaged in the mercantile business
with his son-in-law, James M. Logan. They
were unusually successful in that enterprise.
]Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Stephens were Meth-
odists in their religious faith and for a
time he served faithfully as steward in the
church of that denomination at Belleview.
Mr. Stephens was a son of George and Sarah
(Wright) Stephens, representatives of an old
and honored Kentucky family. Louisa W.
(Wyatt) Stephens, mother of Mrs. Logan,
was born in Virginia, on the 19th of March,
1812, and she died on the 22nd of November,
1888. She came to Missouri with her parents,
William G. and Frances (Level) Wyatt, when
she was in her twelfth year. Settlement was
made by the Wyatt family in the close vicin-
ity of the present Logan estate, the old
homestead entered by William G. Wyatt be-
ing still in possession of the family. Jlr. and
Mrs. Wyatt died near Caledonia, Missouri.
Mrs. Logan had one brother, George William,
who died in infancy.
JMr. and Mrs. Logan became the parents of
one son, Eugene M., whose bii-th occurred on
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
841
the 27th of January, 1859. He owns and
operates a thirty-barrel capacity flour mill at
Belleview, having been interested in the mill-
ing business for the past fourteen years.
Eugene M. Logan was educated in the public
schools at Belleview, Missouri, and subse-
quently attended the Westminster school at
Fulton, Missouri, for a period of one and
one-half years. He married Miss Fannie L.
Reyburn, a sister of Joseph A. Reyburn, a
sketch of whose career appears elsewhere
in this volume. They have three children,
Jennie Elsie, Joseph Lemuel and Anna Belle.
The elder daughter is a prominent music
teacher in St. Louis, where she was graduated
in the Beethoven Conservatory of Music.
She has taken extensive post-graduate work
in violin and piano and for one year was a
student in Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio.
Mr. and ]\Irs. Logan have also reared a young
man, G. F. Coombs, who entered the Logan
household at the age of eight years. jMr.
Coombs is now assistant buyer in the gentle-
men's furnishing department of "The Fa-
mous" store at St. Louis. He was born on the
16th of October, 1885, at London, England,
a son of Joseph and Mary (Morgan) Coombs.
"With his widowed mother and brother and
sister, he came to America when a child of
but four years of age. Mrs. Coombs, with
her other two children, now reside in St.
Louis. Mr. Coombs is an energetic young
business man and is making rapid progress
toward the goal of success.
Mr. and Mrs. Logan, though well advanced
in years at the time of this writing, in 1911,
are still hale and hearty, retaining in much
of their pristine vigor the splendid physical
and mental qualities of their youth. They
are kindly, generous-hearted people and as
such hold a high place in the undying affec-
tion of their fellow citizens. Their exemplary
lives make them eminently well worthy of re-
presentation in this volume dedicated to the
careers of representative Missourians, for
they are citizens of sterling integrity and
worth.
Eli Thomas Bbaistd, M. D., who is recog-
nized as one of the best physicians and sur-
geons of the Lead Belt and enjoys a large
practice at his home town of Desloge and
vicinity, was born at Bonne Terre, Decem-
ber 12, 1883. His early schooling was in his
native town, after which he took the academic
course at "Washington University in St. Louis.
Entering the medical department of that uni-
versity, he was graduated with the degree of
M. D. in 1908. During his student career he
showed unusual ability, during part of the
course acting as assistant in the anatomical
laboratory, and after graduation was ap-
pointed to the City Hospital, where he spent
one year. He then located at Desloge, where
he soon acquired a large general practice.
Dr. Brand is a son of George W. Brand,
who is living retired at Bonne Terre, having
spent most of his life as a successful farmer
and stock raiser in St. Francois county. He
has been prominent in the Democratic politics
of his county, and is now serving as road
supervisor. He is a member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Yeomen.
He married in 1879, Miss Mattie Boyd, of
St. Francois county. Her father was a sol-
dier in the Federal army and was killed dur-
ing the Civil war.
Dr. Brand is a member of the county and
state medical societies, the American Medical
Association, the City Hospital Alunmi Asso-
ciation, and the St. Louis Medical Society.
His fraternal relations are with the Plii Delta
medical fraternity, the Knights of Pythias,
Modern "Woodmen of America, Select Knights
and Ladies, and Degree of Honor. In pol-
ities he is an active Republican and is now
serving as local register. He was married
on Christmas day, 1910, to Miss Bessie Per-
kins.
Bert P. Bryant. One of the oldest fam-
ilies of Dunklin county is represented by Mr.
Bryant. His great-grandfather was Dr. Wil-
liam H. Horner, who was family physician
to the pioneer settlers and whose career has
been permanently commemorated in the town
of Hornersville, named in his honor. He set-
tled here in 1832. His stock of medicines
and other equipment, ordered in St. Louis,
was brought down Little river to this spot,
in what was then a wilderness. He accumu-
lated a great deal of property, and the town
is built on land that he once owned, and which
after his death passed to his heirs. He was a
fine type of the old country doctor, and his
name deserves a place in the history of this
region.
His children were Amanda and Dr. Joseph
S., the latter still living and practicing medi-
cine at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Amanda
Horner, the grandmother of Mr. Bryant,
first married R. L. Fisher, a practicing phy-
sician of Kennett, and later became the wife
of Judge J. W. Black. As the wife of Dr.
842
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Fisher she was the mother of Ennezia and
William H., besides several that died youug.
William H. spent all his life near Horners-
ville. Ennezia Fisher, who was born and
reared at Horuersville and attended school
there, died on January 15, 1890. She was
married in Hornersville to Mr. P. P. Bryant.
Mr. P. P. Bryant was born in Tennessee,
September 25, 1855, and came to Dunklin
county at the age ol^, thirteen, having spent
the rest of his life here with the exception of
a short time when he lived near the Arkansas
line. He now owns a farm of thirty-five
acres adjoining town, has a two-story brick
business building on Main street, besides sev-
eral dwelling houses, and is one of the pros-
perous citizens of Hornersville. Most of his
early career was devoted to farming. For
twelve years he was in the restaurant busi-
ness, and had a large and successful trade,
which laid the foundation of his present pros-
perity.
Bert P. Bryant, whose family history has
been briefly outlined, was born at Kennett,
February 15, 1885, his father having resided
there and at Campbell a few years. He at-
tended school in Hornersville until he was
thirteen, and then became a clerk for his
father in the restaurant business. For the
past three years he has been engaged in the
fire and life insurance business, and has built
up a very profitable connection in this line.
At the last general election he was Demo-
cratic candidate for the office of circuit court
clerk, and intends to try again in 191-4.
Mr. Bryant takes an active interest in
fraternal affairs, and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which
he was secretary ; the Masonic lodge, of which
he was also secretary; the Woodmen of the
World, the Woodmen Circle, and the Tribe
of Ben Hur, all at Hornersville. His church
is the Baptist. He is a progressive young
citizen, and enjoys the confidence and esteem
of all his fellow citizens.
ilr. Bryant married Miss Ida Craig. Her
parents are old settlers of the county, and
came from Tennessee. She was bom in Ken-
nett, August 25. 1886. They are the parents
of one child, ]\Iildred ilay, born August 25,
1909.
Arc.\dia College and Ursuline Seminabt.
The fine Catholic institution to which this ar-
ticle is dedicated is located at Arcadia, Mis-
souri, and is known as the Arcadia College
and Ursuline Seminary. This school and col-
lege accommodates young ladies only, and
among its students are girls of various de-
nominations. The site of this institution is
the one formerly occupied b^' old Arcadia
College, which was founded by the late Rev.
J. C. Berryman, a sketch of whose career ap-
pears elsewhei-e in this volume. In 1877 the
college was taken over by the Catholic chm-ch
and while it was a school of but very modest
proportions and facilities in those daj's it is
now one of the finest Catholic institutions of
learning in southeastern Missouri. The pres-
ent roll of attendance numbers one hundred
students. The grounds of the school cover
eighty-five acres and are beautifully im-
proved. The present fine church edifice was
completed in 1909, at a cost of fifty thou-
sand dollars. From 1877 until 1880 Bishop
John C. Hennessy, of Wichita, Kansas, liad
charge of the institution, his assistant having
been Rev. Father L. C. Wernert, who has
been in charge since that time to the pres-
ent. The present assistant is Rev. Father
John Adrian, and Mother Borgia Bigley is
mother superior. The institution represents
an investment of upwards of one hundred
thousand dollars, in addition to the fine new
fifty thousand dollar chirrch.
Rev. Father L. C. Wernert has presided as
pastor in this parish since 1880, the same be-
ing known as St. Joseph's Chapel and Pa-
rochial church of Arcadia. Missouri. He
was ordained to the Catholic priesthood at
St. Louis, in 1876. A native of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, he was born on the 3d of No-
vember, 1852, and he is a brother of the late
Rev. Father John L. Wernert, who died at
Detroit, Michigan, where he had been pas-
tor for a number of years, the date of his
demise being the 11th of February, 1889.
Joseph and Theresa Wernert, parents of
Father Wernert, were born at Strassburg,
province of Alsace-Lorraine, then French ter-
ritory. They came to the United States in
early youth and settled at Pittsburg, then
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where the father
gained renown as a prominent architect and
builder. The Wernert family has always
given its allegiance to the Catholic church.
Father Wernert was educated in St. Fran-
cis Seminary, at jMilwaukee, Wisconsin, and
he was ordained as a priest by the late
Bishop Rj'an, then coadjutor at St. Louis to
Archbishop P. R. Kenrick, of that city.
Wlien Father Wernert assumed charge of
the parish at Arcadia his territory included
some ten counties and he was obliged to
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
843
travel extensively in order to hold service at
the different churches in his charge. For
the past eight j-ears he has had an assistant.
He is a man of fine intellectual attributes
and his many kind acts have been prompted
by intrinsic goodness and deep human sym-
pathy. He is ever ready to extend a help-
ing hand to the poor and needy and his great
charity knows only the bounds of his oppor-
tunities.
Concerning the equipment and attractions
of Arcadia College, the following article,
compiled bj- the Ui-suline Sisters, is consid-
ered worthy of reproduction at this point
and the same is given in full below.
The College and Academy, under the di-
rection of the Ursuline Nuns, is a thoroughly
equipped institution for elementary, second-
ary and the higher education of women.
The aim of the Ursuline Order is the
Christian education of young women. This
is a work which embodies the physical, in-
tellectual and moral development of the stu-
dent — a work which can be brought to com-
pleteness only by the concentration of ener-
gy that is capable of turning all things into
so many factors achieving the one great end.
The buildings are spacious and commodious
and are provided with all the modern im-
provements. The hot water system of heat-
ing is used with the most gratifying results
to both health and comfort. No expense has
been spared to provide the most complete
lavatory system throughout. The Bethalto
water system has been installed; with it the
pressure can be instantly increased, and a
strong steady stream of water sent over any
of the buildings; thus a reliable fire service
is always at command.
The pleasure grounds, which surround the
College, are extensive and most beautifully
adorned. The tennis courts, golf links, cro-
quet and basket-ball courts tell their own
tale, and bring to our mental sight a vision
of fair girlhood, with sparkling eyes and
cheeks aglow, the very embodiment of health
and happiness.
The increase in the number of religious
services and stiidents necessitated the build-
ing of a larger chapel, which was dedicated
on April 14th, 1909, by the Most Rev. J. J.
Glennon, D. D., assisted by the Rt. Rev. J.
J. Hennessy, D. D.. of Wichita. Kansas, and
forty-five priests of the Archdiocese of St.
Loiiis. The magnificent structure is strictly
Romanesque, of Cruciform design; measures
118 feet in length bj' 53 feet in width, and
has a seating capacit.y of over six hundred.
The edifice represents not only the largest
chapel in Southeast Missouri, but also one
of the most beautiful in the West.
It has been truly said that the zealous
daughters of St. Ursida have made the Val-
ley of Arcadia worthy of the name it bears
to-day, because of their beautiful Temple,
reared for the honor and glory of God, of
their great institution, nestling among the
Ozark hills, and because of the many cul-
tured and noble women they have sent forth
from their historic walls.
C-VPTAiN CH-iRLES K. PoLK. "And they
shall beat their swords into plow-shares" is
a fitting text for a brief sketch of the life of
Captain C. K. Polk, a soldier of distinction
in the Confederate army, now an enterprising
and successful farmer. He resides on his
farm twelve miles southeast of Ironton, in the
county which his ancestors took such an active
part in organizing and developing.
Captain Polk's father was Major John
Polk, a native of Georgia, who came to ]\Iis-
souri from "way down south" early in the
nineteenth century v.-ith his father, William
Polk. They secured land and after making
several moves came to the present home in
Iron county, where they have been potent
factors for its upbuilding, both by their pub-
lie services and private enterprise, ilajor
Polk was a representative of Madison county
in the '^Missouri legislature, and performed
the same service later for Iron county, which
he was active in organizing. The family is
related to that of the former president, James
K. Polk, and like him is of Scotch descent.
Ma.ior Polk married Christina Tount. of
Cape Girardeau county, ^Missouri. She was
bom in that county in 1799, her family being
among the early settlers of eastern Missouri,
German by descent. She was a member of
the Baptist church, which her husband
favored, but was not formally connected
with. Christina and John Polk were the par-
ents of a large family, of whom two sons and
three daughters grew to maturity, but Cap-
tain Charles Polk is the only member now
alive.
Captain Polk was born in Sladison county,
ilissouri, October 16. 1839, and has spent
all but eight years o-f his life in this state.
Four years he was in tlie war, two in Arkan-
sas and two in California, in Tehama county.
844
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
where he was engaged in farming. Farming
and fighting have been the two occupations
of his life and he has made good in both.
His military career began in the state
service, where he was lieutenant. Later he
.ioined the Confederate forces and was
elected lieutenant of Company B, Third Mis-
souri Cavalry, under Colonel Colton Greene.
His faithful and gallant service soon secured
him the appointment of captain, for he never
avoided any engagement or shirked the small-
est duty. He served from July, 1861, until
the surrender at Shreveport, Louisiana, and
though he was in the forefront of some
twenty-five or thirty engagements of all de-
grees of severity, he was never wounded nor
touched by a bullet.
Captain Polk was first married to Miss
Christ, of Missouri, Iron county, who died
before the war. While in Arkansas during
the war he was married a second time. The
union occurred in 1864 and the bride was
ilrs. Rhoda A. Emerson, nee Whitlow. She
had one child of her former marriage and
two were born to her and Captain Polk. The
daughter, Mrs. Christina Lee Ashlock, now
resides in Madison county. She has seven
children, the eldest of whom, Charles, is in
the United States army. The others, John,
Richard, Earle, Alma, Joseph and Dumont,
are at home. The son of this second mar-
riage, John William, was engaged in farm-
ing and milling in Iron county until his
death, in 1905, at the age of thirty-seven,
.years. He left a wife and four children,
Elmer, Lorene, Raymond and Carrie. The
bereaved widow was formerly Miss Laura
Miller, daughter of John J. W. Miller, whose
family came to old St. ilichaels, now Fred-
ericktown, in 1811. Later they came to Marble
Creek, where C. W. Miller now resides. Sirs.
Laura Polk's father, J. J. W. Miller, entered
the land on which he still resides in 1855,
during Pierce's administration. There ten
other children beside Mrs. Polk were born to
J. J. W. and Rachel Sutton Miller, six of
whom are still living. Captain Polk's second
wife went with him to California in 1873, but
she did not live to return in 1875, when he
came back to stay in Iron county. Here in
1877 he married the present Mrs. Charles
Polk, who was Miss Harriet Isabel Sharp, a
native of Iron county and a sister of Thomas
B. Sharp, ex-sheriff of Madison county,
whose life appears elsewhere in this work.
Captain and iMrs. Polk have seven chil-
dren. Of these, one son, Thomas, and two
daughters, Miss Annie and Miss Laura, live
at home, Thomas assisting his father to oper-
ate the farm. Three other daughters are mar-
ried: Hattie to Mr. W. L. Boatner, a farmer
whose residence is not far from the Captain's
home; Lula Polk Thomas, wife of Otto
Thomas, of Granite city, 111., a miller by trade,
and they have one daughter, I\Iarian, and
Mrs. 0. L. Yount, nee Eusebia Polk, is a resi-
dent of Ironton. She has two sons, Charles
and Jlorris. All of the daughters and the
son Henry Polk have all tauglit in the schools
of Iron and Madison counties. Charles Henry
Polk, is a traveling auditor of the M. K. & T.
Railroad. His headquarters are at Sedalia,
Missouri. He was two terms representative
of Iron county in the Slissouri legislature.
In polities Captain Polk is a Democrat. To
this party he has given lifelong adherence
and is a firm believer in its policies, though
his public service has been military rather
than political.
Both Mrs. Polk and the Captain are valued
members of the United Baptist church, the
latter having the distinction of being a mem-
ber of the first organization of that denomi-
nation west of the Mississippi river.
W. J. Ward. A wide-awake, brainy man,
possessing an unlimited amount of energy
and keen business instincts, W. J. Ward,
secretary, treasurer and manager of the
Shelton-Ward Hardware Company, is one of
the representative citizens of Kennett, stand-
ing prominent in mercantile and financial
circles. He has risen from humble surround-
ings and limited circumstances to a place of
afSuence and influence in the community, his
success in life being entirely due, as he says,
to the wise counsels and advice of Mr. W. F.
Shelton, who always stood ready to give as-
sistance to worthy young men. A son of D.
W. and Dillia A. Ward, he was born May 30,
1860, in Weakley county, Tennessee, where
he spent the first fourteen years of his life.
In December, 1874, his parents moved to
the north end of Dunklin county, Missouri,
settling in what is now known as the "Col-
ony," from there going, in 1876, to Grand
Prairie, near Cotton Plant, where they lived
two years. They subsequently settled near
Campbell, and not far from Valley Ridge,
Dunklin county, where the father's death
occurred in December, 1906, at the age of
seventy-two years. Mr. Ward's mother still
lives on the home farm, making her home
with a daughter.
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
After going with the family to Grand
Prairie, W. J. Ward worked out by the month,
picking cotton, etc., until twenty-four years
old. He then married, and for two years
rented land of his father-in-law at Grand
Prairie. Mr. W. P. Shelton came forward
about that time and assisted iMr. "Ward in
buying eighty acres of land at Horse Island,
near Senath, furnishing all of the money in-
vested, as Mr. Ward had not a dollar. Mr.
Ward cleared and improved a good farm,
erecting a substantial house and barn, and
in course of time repaid Mr. Shelton the
money which he had advanced while agent
for the land. Subsequently Mr. Ward traded
his farm for two hundred acres of land lying
just southeast of Kennett. He added to its
improvements, bought two hundred acres of
adjoining land, and held it all until about
three years ago, when he sold at an advance.
Mr. Ward has since purchased eight hundred
acres of wild land in Dunklin county, and a
thousand acres of the "Dog Walk" tract in
Arkansas, the development of which he is
just beginning.
In 1894 Mr. Ward became associated with
the business interests of Kennett, in company
with W. P. Shelton, W. P. Shelton, Jr., and
D. W. Moore establishing the Shelton Corn
Company, which was capitalized at two thou-
sand five hundred dollars, and handled corn,
cotton seed and retailed lumber. The com-
pany built an elevator, and for two years
carried on a good business, Mr. Ward being
manager of the concern. Buying out Mr.
Moore's interest in 1896, the Messrs. Shelton
and Mr. Ward built a planing mill and a saw
mill in connection with their lumber yard,
the plant adjoining the yards of the Railway
Company, and there manufactured all the
lumber they handled, and also shipped much
rough lumljer, their lumber interests crowd-
ing oiit the corn and seed business.
This firm, as lumber manufacturers, car-
ried a good supply of builders' hardware and
supplies, and in 1901, through the insistence
and persistence of Mr. W. F. Shelton, erected
on the public square of Kennett its present
tine building in which its hardware store is
housed, investing^ve thousand dollars in the
building, which is fifty by one hundred feet,
and to which a wareroom was subsequently
added. Putting in a stock of hardware
valued at six hundred dollars, the store was
opened October 1, 1901, and in the two fol-
lowing years the business had so increased
that a much larger stock was needed, so in
1903 an annex building, fifty by eighty feet
was erected, and two yeai-s later it was neces-
sary to build another annex, that one being
thirty-six by fifty feet. Each year the busi-
ness grew, assuming enormous proportions,
all under the management of Mr. Ward, and
in 1908 a building thirty-four by seventy
feet was added to the others, giving a floor
space of over thirteen thousand square feet.
The firm now carries a very heavy stock of
hardware, and its annual sales have vastly in-
creased in later years, six salesmen being em-
ployed. In November, 1909, the lumber busi-
ness, which had increased in a corresponding
ratio, its sales each year being about the same
as in the hardware department, was sold to the
Campbell Lumber Company. In January,
1908, during the illness of Mr. Shelton, the
business was incorporated as the Shelton-
Ward Hardware Company and was capital-
ized at fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. ^Y. F.
Shelton, Jr., was made president of the com-
pany, and Mr. Ward was elected secretary,
treasurer and general manager, a position for
which he was amply qualified Ijoth by knowl-
edge and experience, and which he has since
filled ably and satisfactorily.
Mr. Ward is likewise a stockholder in the
Cotton Exchange Bank, and is a director and
the vice-president of the Bank of Nimmons,
Arkansas, where he owns a store building
and other property. He is a Democrat in
polities, and fraternally he stands high in
the Masonic Order, being a member and a
past worthy master of Kennett Lodge, No.
215, A. P. & A. M. ; a member of Helm Chap-
ter, No. 117, R. A. M., of which he is Scribe;
and a member of the R. & S. M.
Mr. Ward's home, which is one of the
best and most attractive in the city of Ken-
nett, has eighteen rooms, and is furnished
with all modern conveniences. Mr. Ward
married, at the age of twenty-four years,
Mollie L. Herrmann, daughter of William
Herrmann, of Grand Prairie, Missouri, and
into their household seven daughters have
been born, namely : Myrtle M., wife of A. R.
Zimmerman, cashier of the Clarkton Bank,
in Clarkton, Missouri; Terah. wife of Clyde
Oaks, cashier of the Cotton Exchange Bank
of Kennett, of whom a brief sketch may be
found elsewhere in this volume; Willie A.,
a pleasant young lady employed as book-
keeper in the hardware store ; Hattie B. ;
Ruth; Alma, and Joe.
846
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
R. E. Englaxd. One of those thriving
and well-managed concerns which aid in ma-
terial fashion in the general prosperity and
commercial prestige of Hematite is the mer-
cantile business of which that widely and
favorably known citizen, R. E. England, is
manager and part owner. He is a native son
of the state, his birth having occurred at
Rush Tower, Jefferson county, July 2, 1869.
His father, James M. England, was born in
Jefferson county, likewise, and the paternal
grandparents, James Ross, a native of Ten-
nessee, and Margaret England, a native of
Missouri, cast their fortimes with Jefferson
county, locating in Plattiu, Avhere they con-
tinued to reside until the close of their
lives. The father of the immediate sub-
ject of this brief biography was one
of the historic gold seekers who went
to California only a short time after the
Forty-niners. He was but seventeen years
of age at the time and he remained for
four years before he returned to Jefferson
county, whose charms and advantages had
remained in vivid memory throughout that
period of rough adventure. About 1865 he
engaged in the mercantile business at Hema-
tite, ^Missouri, and in addition to this occu-
pation he engaged in farming on an extensive
scale. He remained actively engaged in this
two-fold pursuit until his death, in 190-4, his
loss being keenly regretted in the communitj-
in w^iich he had been a familiar figure and an
influence for good for so many years. He
married Elizabeth Waggoner a native of
Kentuckj% and a later resident of Jefferson
county — a daughter of R. G. and Mary Wag-
goner, natives of Virginia and Illinois, re-
spectively. To 2h: and Mrs. England were
born eleven children, nine of whom are still
living, R. E. being the sixth in order of birth.
Both parents were zealous members of the
Methodist Episcopal church. South, and the
father was Democratic in his political belief
and a member of the Masonic lodge, with
whose ideals of moral and social justice and
brotherly love he was in perfect harmony.
The elder I\Ir. England held the office of post-
master of Hematite for sixteen years.
The early life of R. E. England was spent
in Hematite, in whose public schools he laid
the foundations of his education. After fin-
ishing school at the age of fifteen years he
at once became an actual factor in the world
of affairs by going into the mercantile busi-
ness as an assistant to his father. It is some-
what unusual that he sliould have remained
thus engaged in all the ensuing years. The
family still own the business, but the subject
manages it in every detail and its continual
growth and abundant prosperity is the logi-
cal outcome of his executive ability and sound
judgment.
On the 16th day of February, 1896, Mr.
England laid the foundation of a happy mar-
ried life, the lady of his choice being ]\Iar-
garet McCormack, of Hematite, daughter of
Peter C. and Sophia McCormack. Four
promising young people are growing up be-
neath their roof-tree, namely : Dorothy, Kath-
erine, James M. and ]\Iargaret. ]\Ir. England
like his honored father, is aligned with the
men of the Democratic party, and he is in-
terested in all public matters and ready to
support such measures as would be likely to
result in general benefit.
GeneraIj James Robinson McCoEiiiCK.
One of the beloved and distinguished names
which will long remain bright upon Saint
Francois county's roll of honor is that of the
late General James Robinson McCormick; a
statesman who served Avith an eye single to
the good of his constituents in both state
and national assemblies; a man of great
usefulness when the integrity of the Union
was threatened as examining surgeon for
the United States army and later as briga-
dier general of the enrolled militia of South-
eastern Missouri; previous to the war a phy-
sician and in later years a drug merchant at
Farmington; and ever a good citizen, to
whom the general well being was very dear.
James Robinson McCormick was born in
Washington county, ilissouri, August 1, 1824,
and at the age of sixteen lost his father Jo-
seph, by death. The latter was a native of
North Carolina, where he was reared and
married, and in 1806 he came to Washing-
ton county, Missouri, and homesteaded six
hundred and forty acres of land. Several
families came with him. He was a farmer
until his death, which occurred about 1846,
and owned a few slaves. His first wife was a
Miss Sloan, who died and left one child,
Fielding L. His second wife (the subject's
mother) was Jane Robinsoi^ and she had six
children, all now deceased, and she died at
middle age. Previous to his father's death,
James R. ^McCormick had received a good
elementary education, a teacher having been
a member of the household and young James
profited much by that person's tuition. Left
without his natural guardian when young,
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
847
he had early to feel the stiug of straitened
eireumstanees and had no assistance in gain-
ing his higher education, working his way
through college and constituting in himself
an excellent example of that typical Ameri-
can product — the self-made man. The j'oung
fellow had his first experience as a wage
earner in the capacity of a teacher, his work
in this field covering the period of a year.
He subsequently pursued a course in Transyl-
vania University in Kentucky, entering that
institution of learning about the year 1847.
He then taught school again for about a
year, his pedagogical labors being this time
in the state of Florida, and subsequently he
took up the study of medicine under Dr.
Douglass, of Nashville, with whom he read for
about a year. This was preliminarj- to enter-
ing the Medical College of Memphis, from
which he earned the degree of ^I. D. in 1849.
When it came to locating and beginning his
active career, he chose Bollinger countj', Mis-
souri, where he practiced for a year, then
removing to Perry county, where he con-
tinued in practice until about the year 1860.
As signal mark of his standing and his use-
fulness to the community in his decade's resi-
dence there he was elected to the state senate
from that district. In 1861, at the outbreak
of the Civil war, he was appointed examining
surgeon for the United States army and oc-
cupied this position for two years. He was
then appointed Brigadier General of the en-
rolled militia of Southeastern Missouri and
served in that capacity until the close of the
war. He practically gave up the practice
of medicine at the close of the great conflict
and he was subsequently known by his
friends as "General" McCormick. He
opened a small drug store at Farmington and
devoted a good deal of time to its manage-
ment.
In 1866 General McCormick was again
elected to the state Senate, but resigned to
fill the unexpired term of Thomas E. Noel
in Congress. Having thus given a "taste of
his quality" in the National Assembly, he
was twice afterwards elected to the United
States Congress as representative from the
Fourteenth ilissouri district, his contempo-
raries in the great legislative body including
James G. Blaine and William Mckinley. At
the termination of his third term he retired
from politics, and. moving from Arcadia,
^Missouri, to Farmington. in 1874, that he
might be in closer association with his
friends, he there resided until he passed to
the Great Beyond, this occurring ilay 9,
1897. He was twice married, his first alliance,
in 1854, being with Mrs. Burchett Nance, of
Perry county. She died December 25, 1862,
leaving two children, of whom Dr. Emmett
Curran McCormick, mentioned on subsequent
pages of this work, was the younger; and a
sister, Martha Jane, who died at the age of
ten years, the elder. In 1866 General Mc-
Cormick married Susan Elizabeth Garner and
two children were the fruit of their union.
One died in infancy and a son, James Ed-
ward, resident in St. Louis, Missouri, is a
graduate physician, but does not engage in
active practice. The second Mrs. IMcCor-
mick died in October, 1901, having survived
her husband for a few years.
General McCormick was a "Union Demo-
crat" in politics and was a member of the
Senate at the time of the amendment of the
state constitution. He was a member of the
time-honored Masonic fraternity and in his
religious conviction was a Presbyterian. He
was literary in taste and a great reader, be-
ing familiar with the literature of all nations.
He possessed a clear, alert intellect and was
an honorable gentleman, enjoying the con-
fidence and respect of all.
Emmett Cueran McCormick, M. D. One
of the gifted physicians whose possession has
contributed in high degree to the professional
prestige of St. Francois county is Dr. Emmett
Curran McCormick, of Farmington. He has
no doubt inherited his skill in the profession
from his father. Dr. James Robinson Mc-
Cormick, who was one of the most prominent
of Southeastern ilissouri physicians and
surgeons and a prominent statesman, as well.
The subject is a man of fine abilities and is
particulaflj^ well-known for his achievements
in his specialty, the diseases of women and
children, in this line never having failed to
apply and develop his gifts as an original in-
vestigator.
Dr. ilcCormick is a native son of the state,
his birth having occurred on a farm in Perry
county, some eight miles southeast of Perry-
ville, the date of his nativity being ]\Iarch
22. 1855. His father. General James Robin-
son ]\IcCormiek, of whom mention is made
on preceeding pages of this work, was also
a native Missourian. The early education of
the subject was received at Arcadia, Mis-
souri, in the private schools of that place and
in Arcadia College. He also spent one 3'ear
— 1870 — in Washington, D. C with his
848
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
father, who -was in Congress at the time, and
during that time prosecuted his studies under
the direction of a private tutor. Having de-
termined upon his life work, he entered the
St. Louis Medical College and was graduated
from that famous institution ]\Iarch 3, 1881.
He was but a boy at the time of the Civil war
and that desolate period was further sad-
dened for him by the death of his mother,
whose demise occurred in 1862. For a time
he lived with a family of the name of Rupert
and at the battle of Pilot Knob the Rupert
home was converted into a hospital, his mem-
ory of the event having ever remained very
vivid. When prepared for his life work, Dr.
McCormick located at Farmington and this
has remained the scene of his entire career.
Here he is held in universal respect and is
valued as one who gives materially to the
community's well-being. With his brother
the Doctor owns two thousand, two hundred
acres of land in this county, all in a body,
which constitutes one of the best stock farms
in the United States. They breed registered
Short-Horn cattle, thoroughbred hogs, sheep
and driving horses, and a manager is ' em-
ploved to superintend this valuable estate.
On September 12, 1882, Dr. McCormick es-
tablished a happy household by his marriage
to Lucy F. AuBuchon, daughter of Ferd
AuBuchon, of French Village, Missouri.
They became the parents of eleven children,
as follows: Luella Gertrude; Fielding L. ;
Florence Burchette, now Mrs. H. L. Nichols,
of Chicago ; Emmett Curran, Jr. ; Katherine
Odiel; Lucy Corrinne; Martha Caroline;
James Robinson: Bernard Brooks, deceased;
]\Ianson AuBuchon; and the youngest child,
who died as an infant unnamed. The ad-
mirable wife and mother died May 6, 1909,
lamented by many friends. Mrs. I\IcCormick
was a liberal Catholic and a few years after
her marriage she .joined the Presbyterian
church, with which a year later her husband
also united. She was a noble woman and the
influence of her beautiful character will not
soon be lost. She devoted her life to her fam-
ily and found her greatest joys within the
sacred precincts of the latter. She was ill
for three years before her death and her
husband gave up his practice, abandoned
every outside interest to devote his entire
time to her whose loyal companionship had
been thoroughly ideal, but since her death he
has resumed the duties of his profession.
In his political allegiance Dr. McCormick,
like his honored father before him, subscribes
to the articles of faitli of the Democratic
party and all public measures which appeal
to his as likely to be of general benefit he
supports to the best of his ability. He is a
member of the Presbyterian church, as has
been previously noted, and his fraternal re-
lations extend to a trio of orders — the Ma-
sonic ; the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows; and the Knights of Pythias, of which
latter organization he is a charter member.
He is extremely popular, as all men of sound
character, winning personality and fine citi-
zenship must be, and is prominent in the
many-sided life of the community, as are also
his sons and daughters.
Richard D. Blaylock, M. D., is a native
of ^Missouri and it is safe to say that she has
few sons of whom she is prouder. His pa-
ternal grandfather, Thomas Blaylock, was a
native of North Carolina, a state which has
given Missouri the founders of many of her
best families. He came to Perry county in
1815, accompanied by his wife. In that coun-
ty was born James Alexander Blaylock, the
father of Dr. Richard Blaylock. The former
was three times married and Richard is the
third child of his third wife. Luvica Penny
Blaylock. There were ten children altogether,
two by the first marriage, Martha and Cath-
erine. The second wife had three sons : John,
Joseph A. and Christopher Columbus, and
one daughter. — ilatilda. Besides Richard,
Luvica Penny Blaylock bore three other sons,
Dr. Charles Ferdinand. George Avon and
Thomas. She died in 1909, at the age of
seventy-five. Her husband lived to be only
sixty, passing away in 1891.
Richard Blaylock was born in Perry coun-
ty January 15, 1872. While working on the
farm he attended the district schools and
also those of Perry\'ille. Later he took a
course in a training school in 1897 and 1898.
The following year he entered the Barnes
IMedical College of St. Louis. When he en-
tered school he had fourteen dollars and fifty
cents. He borrowed one hundred and thirty-
five dollars, and this took him through his
first winter. During the following summer
he secured employment on the street railway
and finished his course, on the street cars, as
it were, for he divided his time between study
and working for the railway company. Five
hours of every day during the third term he
ran a car and every day he attended his
classes, never missing a recitation. His med-
ical education cost him one thousand three
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .^HSSOURI
849
hundred dollars and he earned every cent of
it, leaving college owing no man anything.
He graduated in 1903, receiving the degree
of M. D.
Dr. Blaylock began his practice of his pro-
fession in Lixville. He spent one summer
there and in the fall of 1903 came to Sedge-
Tvielaille, where he has since resided and
where he has built up the practice which
would be expected of so efficient and well
equipped a phj'sician. The field of his work
is something over nine miles in extent. He
has a fine residence on two acres of land,
worth two thousand two hundred dollars.
In the fraternal organizations Dr. Blay-
lock holds membership in the Modern Wood-
men and Ben Hur. He is a communicant of
the iMethodist church, South.
In 1893 he was married to Dora Bollinger,
daughter of ^latthias Bollinger. She died
within fourteen months after her marriage.
Dr. Blaylock then married Rada Statler,
daughter of ilrs. Mary Statler. She, too,
lived only two years, dying in 1907, of tu-
berculosis. Her son Howard was born June
12, 1906. The present Mrs. Blaylock is
Sallie, daughter of John and Sarah Bowers,
of Cape Girardeau county. She was wedded
to Dr. Blaylock in 1910, on April 17.
George "Washington Williams, ^I. D.
The late Dr. George Washington Williams
was honorably and prominently identified
with the medical profession of Saint Fran-
cois county through many years. He came
here a young man full of strength and en-
thusiasm; here he married and established
a home; made the interests of the commu-
nity his own ; ever labored for its welfare ;
and, permitted a longer time of living than
is granted to the most, he died crowned with
years and veneration. Dr. Williams was
born in Roanoke, Virginia, June 22, 1819,
and passed his early life amid the interest-
ing scenes of the Old Dominion. He re-
ceived his preliminary education in private
schools and subsequently attended the Vir-
ginia Military Institute, from which well-
known institution he was graduated more
than three decades prior to the outbreak of
the Civil war. After finishing his general
education he came to Missouri and in this
state taught school as a means of livelihood.
While engaged in his pedagogical labors he
read medicine and having saved sufficient
money to further his preparation for the
profession of his choice, he entered medical
school, locating first at Caledonia. He sub-
sequently entered the Missoui'i Medical Col-
lege at St. Louis and received his degree
from that institution. After practicing for
a time at Caledonia he removed to Farming-
ton and there remained imtil his demise,
with the sole exception of a period of sis
years which he spent in Georgia on account
of his wife's health.
Dr. Williams chose as his wile one of
Farmington's daughters, Elinor D. Peers,
daughter of John D. and Kathryn Peers,
and to their happy union were born the
following seven children : Emma Peers,
who became the wife of B. R. Lagg, and is
now deceased; Dr. John W. ; Kate L., who
became the wife of C. F. Mansfield; Edward
V. ; Elinor Kennett, Mrs. George Rutherford ;
Dr. Benjamin, a record of whose life appears
elsewhere in this volume; and a child who
died in infancy.
Dr. Williams was a close student of his
profession, ever striving to keep in touch
with the latest scientific discoveries in his
particular field, and he was the kindly friend
and physician of hundreds of families in the ■
section, who esteemed him both as a man and
an enlightened minister to the ills of suffer-
ing humanity. In politics he was a stanch
Democrat, having given his suffrage to its
men and causes since his earliest voting days
and he was a member of the Presbyterian
church. His lodge affiliation was with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and at the
time of his much lamented death, on March
2, 1906, he had the distinction of being the
oldest Odd Fellow in all Saint Francois
county. His age when summoned to the
Great Beyond was eighty-six years, eight
months and eight days. The memory of this
good man will long remain bright in Saint
Francois county.
George Benjamin Williams. ]\I. D., is a
physician and surgeon of prominence and is
well entitled to representation in this work
dedicated to the citizens of Southeastern
Missouri. The name has long been identi-
fied with the profession in this section. Dr.
Williams' father, the late Dr. George Wash-
ington Williams, having been one of the
ablest of Saint Francois county practition-
ers and in choice of life work the subject
has thus followed in the paternal foot-
steps. More detailed mention is made of
the elder gentleman on preceding pages
of this work. Dr. Williams is surgeon for
850
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
the St. Joe Lead Company, the Illinois
Southern Railway Company and the St.
Louis Smelting & Refining Company, and
holds high place in the regard of both laity
and medical fraternity.
Dr. Williams is a native son of the county,
his birth having occurred in Farmington,
July 17, 1864. His education was secured
in the pulilic schools of Farmington and in
the Georgia Military Institute, of Marietta,
Georgia, from the latter institution receiv-
ing a degree. To prepare for the profession
he had elected he entered the Beaumont
School in St. Louis and in 1893 he finished
a profitable and zealously pursued course of
study and received the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. He located at Desloge, Missouri,
where he was in practice until 1898, when
he moved to Flat River, where he has been
in continuous practice since and where suc-
cess and recognition have awaited him. He
is surgeon for the St. Joe Lead Company,
the Illinois Southerr( Railroad and the St.
Louis Smelting & Refining Company. His
general practice is large and in addition to
the duties already mentioned he also does
some surgical work for two other companies.
He is probably the leading surgeon of the
Lead Belt and is a valued member of the
County, State and American Medical Asso-
ciations.
On July 19, 1893, Dr. Williams was united
in marriage to Miss Mattie E. Salveter, of
St. Charles. Missouri, daughter of T. C. Sal-
veter, manager of the St. Charles Car Works
and the Madison & Illinois Car Works. This
happy and congenial union has been further
cemented by the birth of two daughters, —
the Misses Maggie May and Jessie Ellen.
Dr. Williams is a loyal supporter of the
cause of the Democratic party and siqce the
attainment of his majority has subscribed
to its articles of faith. He is a valued mem-
ber of the Presbyterian church and his
lodge relations are three-fold, extending to
the time-honored Masonic order, the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and the
Modern Woodmen of America. He and his
family hold high place in society and their
home is one of the attractive and hospitable
abodes of the city.
Thomas Reuben Tolleson. The name of
Thomas Reuben Tolleson is prominently as-
sociated with the financial and commercial
interests of Leadwood as manager of the
Bonne Terre & Cattle Company Store and as
a stockholder and vice president of the Bank
of Leadwood. He has much financial ability
and has given thought and study to the de-
velopment of the bank, his efforts bringing
gratifying results and adding to the deposits
and financial strength of the institution.
He also has the distinction of having been the
first postmaster of Leadwood, his tenure of
this office having extended from the time of
its establishment in 1901 until November,
1910, holding it twice by commission and
once by appointment. He is, in short, a loyal
and representative citizen of this thriving
town and it is indeed appropriate that men-
tion of his life be recorded in this volume de-
voted to representative men and women of
southeastern Missouri.
Thomas Reuben Tolleson was born in Gran-
iteville. Iron county, Llissouri, May 6, 1874.
The father, Herman Tolleson, was born in
Norway, in 1843, and came to America when
a young man about nineteen years of age.
His first residence in the new country in
which he was to try his fortunes was in Wis-
consin, but after a few years he left that
state and came to Iron county, Missouri. He
was engaged in the quarries, and is, in fact,
in this business at the present time. He mar-
ried in 1872, Jane Kidd, of Iron county, and
to this union seven children were born,
Thomas Reuben being the eldest in order of
birth. The father and mother still reside at
Graniteville, and the head of the house, in
addition to his quarry interests, owns a farm
so eligibly situated that parts of it are laid
out in town lots. Mr. Tolleson, Sr., is Repub-
lican in politics and Lutheran in church affili-
ation. He takes no small amount of pleasure
in his lodge membership, which is with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
American Order of United Workmen.
The early life of Thomas Reuben Tolleson
was passed in Graniteville and he received
his education in the public school of Iron
county. At the age of nineteen years he left
the parental roof-tree and for two years
clerked for W. H. Beyers, a merchant at
Ironton, Iron county, and after that eight
years for the Lopez Store Company at Iron-
ton and Piedmont. Mr. Tolleson 's identifica-
tion with Leadwood dates from the year 1901,
in which year he came here to take charge of
the Bonne Terre Cattle Company, with which
after a decade he is still associated and to
whose prosperity he has contributed in very
definite manner. His almost immediate as-
sumption of the office of postmaster has al-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
851
read}' been noted and also his connection
with that stable monetary institution, the
Bank of Leadville, of which he was one of the
original stock-holders. He is the champion
of good education and very appropriately is
a member of the school board. He is a stal-
wart Republican, ever ready to do all in his
power to assist in the cause, and is connected
with the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church, South.
He is a prominent lodge man, belonging to
the great Masonic order and holding the
Royal Arch degree, and to the Indej^endent
Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias
and the Modern Woodmen of America.
ilr. Tolleson was married in 1889, !Miss
Bertha Shift'erly, of Bonne Terre, daughter
of Charles and Lena (Grizzell) Shifferly, be-
coming his wife. Four children have been
born to them, namely: Charles (deceased),
Grladys, Adele and Yirgil.
Henry B. Parker, one of the prominent
citizens of Hornersville and who has for a
number of yeai-s been enjoying the comforts
of material prosperitj-. came to this part of
the country in 1890 with a wife and five chil-
dren in a wagon. He possessed little at the
time, and his immediate ob.ject in coming
here was to pick cotton. During the follow-
ing season he planted and made an excellent
crop on rented land, and from that as a be-
ginning his industry and good management
have carried him forward to increasing suc-
cess every year.
Born in Tennessee on May 1, 1858 and
reared on a farm, he was deprived of school
advantages bj' the war. and what he has ac-
complished he owes to his own efforts. When
lie was nineteen he married in Tennessee
Miss Josephine Singleton, who was born in
Tennessee June 7. 1857. Mr. Parker's father
was from a North Carolina family, and his
mother was of an old family in ]\Iiddle Ten-
nessee. After his marriage he engaged in
farming in his native state, then moved to
Texas, where two years were spent without
very encouraging success, and from there he
came to Missouri. He spent a year or two
near Horne^s^^lle, then lived six or seven
years at Cotton Plant, and after being here
eleven years bought his first forty acres, on
time. Four years later he sold the place for
two and a half times what he had paid. He
then bought one hundred and sixty acres,
half of which he has since sold, and he im-
proved the home eighty and made a good
living on it until 1910. when he moved into
Hornersville, where he owns a comfortable
home and a lot one hundred and forty by
one hundred and forty feet. His home farm
is now rented, and he himself leases forty
acres near town for his own farming efforts.
He has done some trading in real estate,
and all his efforts of recent years have pros-
pered. He has been favored in his career by
the excellent health of himself and family.
Despite the malarial conditions of the coun-
try when he came here he had no sickness,
and there have been no deaths in his family
circle. His children are as follows: Nettie,
who married Tom Harkey, of Dunklin coun
ty; Maude, who married Ed Anderson, of
Hornersville; Kate, at home; Bettie, who
married James Rose, now living on ilr.
Parker's farm; and Vinnie, who married
Zack Kennett, of Hornersville. There are
also six grandchildren in the family.
Mr. Parker is a Democrat in polities and
since taking up his residence in Hornersville
has been honored with election to the ofBce of
mayor. He affliates with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows at Hornersville, and
the family church is the ^lethodist.
Isaac G. Whitworth. Among the best-
known and most highly honored of the citi-
zens of Iron county, Missouri, was the late
Isaac G. Wliitworth. ex-county treasurer and
merchant at Ironton for over forty years,
who died February 8, 1908, in the ninety-
second .vear of his age. This venerable gen-
tleman, whose memory will long remain
green in the community in wbieh he was
generally beloved and where he played a use-
ful part for so many years, was born in
Madison county, Georgia, November 19. 1816,
the son of Winston and Sarah (Albright)
Whitworth, natives of North Carolina and
Georgia, respectively. In 1819 the Wliit-
worths, then a young married couple, mi-
grated from their home to Cape Girardeau
county, Missouri, making the long journey
across the wild intervening region in wagons,
according to the necessity of the da.v. The.v
were on the road three weeks. Shortl.v after
arriving in Cape Girardeau county they went
on to Perry county, where they remained for
a few years, and in 1827 they removed to
^ladison county, ^Missouri, where they pur-
chased a farm. The father died there in
1870, at the advanced age of eighty-three
years, and the mother survived until 1884,
when her years numbered eighty-seven.
Thus the subject comes of a family distin-
852
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
guished for its longevity. Of their twelve
children, eight grew to maturity and five are
now living.
Isaac G. Whitworth remained upon his
father's farm until the age of twenty years,
and he then entered upon his business career
as a saddler and blacksmith, while at the
same time keeping grocery for the space of
eight years. He then went back to the farm,
where he married in 1846. ilis Nancy B.
White, of Madison county. He engaged in
agricultural pursuits for ten years and also
was identified with lumbering and milling
activities. From 1856 to 1862, Mr. Whit-
worth was in the lumber business and ran a
saw-mill and in the year last mentioned he
took up his residence in Arcadia, Iron county.
Later he removed to fronton, where he was
engaged in the mercantile business until he
retired, in 188-i, and where the residue of his
life was passed. In 1878 he was elected
county treasurer and served in this impor-
tant office for six consecutive years, with
credit to himself and benefit to his neighbors.
His son, William H., succeeded him as county
treasurer for several terms. He was at all
times active in public life and his counsel was
held in high regard. Among the offices in
which he served were those of city treasurer,
councilman, justice of the peace, and several
school offices. He was a prominent Mason
and for many years was treasurer of the
lodge. He retired from active business about
the year 1890, but long after that he gave
valuable assistance and he was always
greatly interested in the business which he
founded and to which he gave the complete
energies of more than forty years, his advent
into Arcadia Valley, as before mentioned,
dating from 1862, and this section remaining
his home until his death. During his long
business career he had several associates. He
was very active mentally and physically and
always replied instantly upon hearing a busi-
ness proposition. In short he was a business
man of unusual acumen and ability. He was
a member of the Methodist Episcopal church,
South, from the year 1844, the time of its
division, and for over forty years he had the
distinction of being its most liberal sup-
porter. He was active in the ranks of the
Democratic party.
Isaac G. Whitworth and his wife, who pre-
ceded him to the hereafter by many years,
her death occurring in 1869, were the parents
of five sons and four daughters, and of this
number three sons and two daughters are
living. The eldest son, John W., died Feb-
ruary 16, 1911, at the age of sixty-three years.
He was a merchant and was in business from
his boyhood. Besides his \\-idow he is sur-
vived Ijy two daughters and a son, all residing
at Arcadia. In his earlier years a member of
the firm at fronton, he removed in 1880 to
Arcadia and was in business there from that
time on. Mary J., widow of James H. Clark,
of Ironton, is the second member of the fam-
ily. The late Sir. Clark was associated with
the Whitworth firm for many years. James
Monroe, second son, was originally a member
of the Whitworth Sons and a successor to the
business upon the dissolution of the firm in
January, 1910, the above named remaining
at the old stand and I. G. Whitworth, Jr.,
taking the hardware department. William
H., is a man of considerable wealth, who re-
tired from the firm in 1910, the other two
brothers continuing the business as stated.
Sarah P., is the wife of William R. Edgar, of
whom more extended mention is made on
other pages of this work. The youngest mem-
ber of the family, Isaac G., of Ironton, is in
the hardware business.
James Monroe Wliitworth, born in Madi-
son county, Missouri, May 8, 1852, has re-
sided in Ironton and been in business here
since 1862, with the exception of the ten
years which he spent in Arkansas. Of this
period he taught two years in Searcy,
Arkansas, and for eight years was engaged
in the drug business at Fayetteville. He re-
turned to Ironton in 1884 and has been in
business here continuously since that time.
He was married at Fayetteville, Arkansas,
in 1877, to Miss Laura Sue Jones, who was
bom at Jacksonport. Arkansas, the daughter
of the late Dr. J. W. and Savannah (Pryne)
Jones, the former one of the most distin-
guished physicians and surgeons of Arkansas.
To Mr. and Mrs. J. ]\I. Whitworth were born
ten children, four of whom are living and
concerning whom the ensuing brief data are
entered. Robert Pryne resides in Freder-
iektown. Missouri, and is proprietor of the
Madison Hotel of that place. He married
Miss Elizabeth Robertson and they are the
parents of one daughter. Laura Sue. wife
of Arnett L. Sheppard. the son of Judge
Sheppard. of Doniphan, Missouri, resides in
that place. They have one daughter.
Savannah is a teacher in the vicinity of
Searcy. Arkansas, and she is one of the fine
young instructors of that state. She is ex-
cellently educated, having attended Galloway
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
853
College at Searcy, Arkansas, and MeKinley
liigli school at St. Louis, Missouri. Morgan
Winston, aged seventeen, is engaged in the
telephone business and is at home. James
Monroe Whitworth is a Democrat in politics,
but has alwa3's declined office. He and his
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal
church, South, in which he has held many
offices. He is interested in the Iron County
Bank, of which he is one of the organizers,
having been, indeed, one of the prime movers
to that effect. His father was the first pres-
ident of the bank, and James Monroe de-
clined the presidency, which was twice offered
to him.
Isaac G. WTiitworth, the second, is one of
Ironton's representative citizens and well
maintains the prestige of the honored name
he bears. As previously mentioned, he was
for a good many years a member of the firm
of Whitworth Sons (from 1884), and upon
the dissolution of the partnership (in Janu-
ary, 1910), he has continued the hardware
department, carrying among other things an
extensive line of stoves. He is a native son
of Iron county, his birthdate being November
17, 1866, and he is a son of the late Isaac G.
Wliitworth. He married Miss Grace Tual, of
Arcadia, daughter of the late E. C. Tual,
a general blacksmith. IMrs. Wliitworth 's
mother is still living, ilr. and Mrs. Whit-
worth share their delightful home with two
children — Grace, aged sixteen, and Eugene,
aged fourteen, both of whom are in school.
Like his brother, he is a director of the Iron
County Bank, with whose fortunes the family
have been so closely identified. In the mat-
ter of politics he is a tried and true Demo-
crat and his religious views coincide with
those of the Methodist Episcopal church,
South.
John Thomas Dustkins, who was appointed
postmaster of Desloge April 5, 1910, has been
identified with Southeast Missouri through-
out his life, and is one of the most influential
citizens of his community.
He was born on a farm near Piedmont,
March 9, 1870. His father, Thomas N. Din-
kins, was born in Allen county, Kentucky,
April 10, 1844, and at the age of thirteen ac-
companied the family to Lafayette county,
Missouri, where his father was a blacksmith
and farmer. Thomas N. Dinkins grew to
manhood in this locality and at the begin-
ning of the Civil war went into the Confeder-
ate army under General Joe Shelby. From
the war he returned to Missouri and was ac-
tively engaged in farming to- the end of his
life, his death occurring January IS, 1892.
He was a Democrat in politics, and a mem-
ber of the Baptist church and of the ilasonic
order. He married, September 10, 1867,
Miss Myra L. Farris, daughter of Lucian N.
Farris, a farmer of Reynolds county, this
state. She is still living at Piedmont.
John T. Dinkins, who was the second of
his parents' twelve children, was reared on
a farm in Reynolds county and attended
country school there. When he was five
years old the family moved to Texas, but re-
mained there only one year. His independ-
ent career began as a farmer, but in 1899 he
moved to Desloge and for the succeeding ten
years was engaged in mining. His popularity
among the citizens of the Lead Belt led to
his choice for the office of postmaster, where
he has proved a capable public servant. He
is an influential Republican, is a member of
the Baptist church, and affiliates with the
Masonic order and the Modern Woodmen of
America.
At the age of twenty-two he married Miss
Effie Larkin, daughter of Sampson Larkin,
of Centerville,. a former sheriff of Reynolds
county. Mrs. Dinkins passed away August
12, 1909, leaving five children : Thomas W.,
Odessa M., Ross, Otto and William Theodore.
Thomas Jefferson Shultz. Now a pros-
perous and enterprising farmer near Senath,
Mr. T. J. Shultz has spent all his life in Dun-
klin county, and during the early years of
his career contended with many difficulties
and privations so that the prosperity he now
enjoys is the more grateful to him and also
the more noteworthy as an individual accom-
plishment. He is one of the men who have
■won their way up from the bottom, and few
citizens of this region have a keener appre-
ciation of the conditions which once pre-
vailed in this country.
His parents coming from Tennessee and
being early settlers of Southeast Missouri, he
was born on a farm three miles northwest of
Hornersville, June 3, 1856. His father died
when he was a small boy, and he then lived
at home with his mother. Wlien a young
man he married Miss Rosetta Wilkins, and
her death came after they had spent twenty-
seven years together. In 1903 he married
Miss Georgia A. Bridges, who was born in
Tennessee.
Starting his career without money, he
854
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
lived during a period in this part of the coun-
try when pioneer conditions existed. His
trading has been done from one end of the
county to the other, and he was often com-
pelled to go many miles from home to get the
necessities of life. He bought a farm of
eighty acres, getting it on credit. During
his youth he went without shoes, and also had
to make the tliread for his clothes. White
tlour was a rarity for himself and also his
neighbors, corn meal being the staple food,
and often a whole month went by without his
eating wheat biscuit. Bran, wheat and rye
were used for coffee, and his neighbors, when
one of them happened to get a supply of real
coffee, would invite the rest in to share the
treat. In addition to these privations, Mr.
Shultz has had many individual hardships,
sickness and other things delaying him in his
progress. But he now owns his eighty-acre
farm, which is well improved and has a com-
fortable house which he built, and he enjoys
his share of the general prosperity of all this
portion of the state. He is a member of the
^Missionary Baptist church.
His children by his first wife are: Hettie
L., wife of Charles Higginbottom ; Abner C,
who married Nellie Kelley; Ida B., wife of
S. H. Pruett ; and ]\Iontie, at home. By his
present wife he has Joseph, born in 1905 ; and
Virdie, born in 1907 ; and one that died in
infancy. Mr. Shultz has three living grand-
children. Lester E. Higginbottom and Cletus
and Paul Pruett.
Mr. Shultz is a son of Calvert C. and Eliz-
abeth (Xeel) Shultz. the latter born in Dun-
klin county, Missouri, and she died in 1891,
aged fifty-four years. C. C. Shultz was born
in Tennessee and died about 1870, as a young
man of less than forty. They were married
in Dunklin county. Thomas J. Shultz is the
eldest of six children, of whom but one other
is living, William S., a farmer of Dunklin
county.
Jesse M. Hawkins, circuit clerk and re-
corder of Iron county, Missouri, now serving
his third term in this dual capacity, has all
of his life been working for the public. A
man cannot moiint to the top of the ladder of
fame at a bound, and if he should attempt
any such quick method of reaching the sum-
mit, he would find that his foothold was ex-
tremely insecure, and his descent would be
apt to be even more rapid than his ascent.
]Mr. Hawkins did not try the instantaneous
road to si;ccess, but contented himself with
climbing the ladder, rung by rung, pausing
at each step to make sure of his footing. In
this manner he has steadily progressed, and
is today one of the political leaders in Iron
county.
Born in iladison county, Missouri, on the
7th day of February, 1872, Mr. Hawkins is
one of the seven children of John Martin and
Cornelia (Russell) Hawkins, residents of
Belleview vallej', some two miles from Belle-
view, Iron count.v, ilissouri. Both parents
are members of old families. Great-grand-
father Hawkins was a wealthy farmer and
slave owner in Virginia, in which state he re-
mained until some j'ears after his marriage,
then migrated to Wilson county, Tennessee,
where both he and his wife spent the residue
of their days. Their son, Thomas P., was
born in Virginia about 1816, and when a
mere lad, accompanied his parents to Tennes-
see, where he was reared and educated.
About the time that he attained his majority
he married iliss Eliza Scobj', a life-long resi-
dent of Wilson county, Tennessee, up to the
time of her marriage, and in that county her
brother, John Scoby, was well known as an
able lawyer. Immediately after their mar-
riage Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Hawkins re-
moved to Madison county, ilissouri, taking
with them three of their slaves. They bought
a tract of land in ^Madison county, there en-
gaged in agricultural pursuits, and there be-
came the parents of four children, whose
names are as follows: James N., a soldier in
the Confederate army during the Civil war,
who was wounded in battle and died in the
state of Arkansas; Jane, who did not sm-vive
her fifteenth year; Elizabeth, who became
the wife of Defoe Waugh and died about
1896 in Oregon county, Missouri ; and John
M., whose birth occurred Jul.v 27, 1841, in
Madison county, Missouri. Mr. Thomas P.
Hawkins' farm was located six miles south of
what was then called St. Michaels and is now
known as Predericktown ; he planted tobacco
on his land, raised extensive crops and built
immense tobacco barns. He served for sev-
eral years in the capacity of justice of the
peace, and at the time of his death in 1875.
at the age of fifty-nine, Mr. Hawkins was
regarded as one of the most honored resi-
dents of Madison county, Missouri, — a stanch
Democrat in politics and a devout member of
the Methodist church.
Up to liis forty-eighth year. John M.
Hawkins (father of Jesse M.) lived in Madi-
son county, Missouri, with the exception of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
855
the four years spent in the army. He had
just completed his education when the Civil
war was inaugurated, and he enlisted in the
Second Missouri Cavalry, Company E, under
Jeff Thompson, in command of one of the
Confederate companies engaged for state
service. At the expiration of the time for
which he had first enlisted ^Ir. Hawkins
again offered his services, re-enlisting for
three .vears under General Forrest. In the
month of April, 1865, the general surrend-
ered at Charleston, and the various members
of the company were paroled. Mr. Hawkins,
although engaged in many hard-fought bat-
tles, was never wounded, and on his return
home he was ready to take up his active
duties in civil life. In the year 1870 he was
married to Miss Cornelia Russell, native of
New Madrid county, IMissouri, where her par-
ents, Joseph and Sallie (Jackson) Russell,
were married, though the father's birth had
occurred in North Carolina, while the mother
hailed from Kentucky. Soon after their mar-
riage I\Ir. and ]\Irs. Russell removed to St.
Francois county, where they reared their
family of eight children, six of whom are liv-
ing. Mr. and ]Mrs. Hawkins also became the
parents of eight children, one of whom, Leota.
died at the age of twenty, and the names of
the seven living ones are as follows : James,
a commercial traveler, residing at ^Memphis,
Tennessee : Philip, who maintains his home
at Fairview, Oklahoma, and is a railroad en-
gineer in the employ of the Kansas City, Mis-
souri and Ohio Railroad; Laura, the wife of
Louis Morris, former principal of schools
at Flat River, where he and his wife reside;
Sallie (Mrs. Charles Sutton), who makes her
home at Ellington, Reynolds county. ]Mis-
souri ; Ethel, who is married to Harry Rus-
sell, of Belleview, Missouri ; Emma, the com-
panion of her parents on the farm : and
Jesse il., the immediate sub.ject of this sketch.
Mrs. Hawkins and the children are all mem-
bers of the ^Methodist church. ]Mr. Hawkins'
political interests center in the Democratic
party, whose principles he believes contain
the essentials of good government.
Jesse M. Hawkins spent the first sixteen
years of his life on his father's farm in Mad-
ison county, where he attended the public
schools, early evincing interest in literarv
sub.ieets and in all matters concerning the
public good. "Wlien he was sixteen years old
the family moved to Iron county. Belleview
Valley, and he continued his education at the
state normal school at Cape Girardeau.
Vol. n— If)
After completing his schooling he engaged in
the occupation of teaching, and in the year
1896 was elected to the position of commis-
sioner of public scliools, and six years later
became the incumbent of the office of circuit
clerk and recorder of Iron county. His x-ec-
ord during his term of service was so irre-
proachable that he was re-elected to the same
office, and is now serving his third term.
In the year 1900 ilr. Hawkins married
Miss Josie Olson, a daughter of John and
Sophia Olson, of Graniteville, Iron county,
and to the union of the young people two
sons, Russell and Jesse, Jr., were born.
The men in the Hawkins family have al-
ways been stanch Democrats, and Mr. Jesse
Hawkins is no exception, but has ever ren-
dered unwavering allegiance to the Demo-
cratic party. In a fraternal way he is affili-
ated with the Knights of Pythias and with
the ilodern Woodmen of America, while in
religious connection he holds membership
with the Methodist Episcopal church. South.
He is still a young man, with much of his life
before him, in all probability, and inasmuch
as his past record has been beyond reproach,
both in public and private capacity, he ^\'ill
doixbtless be the recipient of further honors
in recognition of his faithfulness, his abilities
and his sterling character.
Benjamin E. Hempstead, M. D., who was
engaged in the practice of medicine and sur-
gery at Cape Girardeau, possessed all the req-
uisite qualities of the successful physician,
for, added to his broad and accui-ate learn-
ing concerning the principles of his profes-
sion, he had a genial manner and sunshiny,
hopeful nature which did not fail to have its
effect upon his patients. His courteous sym-
pathy, as well as his professional skill, had
gained him prestige during the period of his
eight years' residence in this city and his
death on June 28, 1911, came as a severe
loss to the profession and also in business cir-
cles, for he was a successful business man as
well as physician.
A native of Egypt ^lills. Missouri. Dr.
Hempstead was a scion of a fine old pioneer
family in this state. He was a son of John
B. Hempstead, whose father was a native of.
England, where he was graduated in a med-
ical college and whence he immigrated to the
United States at a very early day, locating
at New London, Connecticut. John B. Hemp-
stead was likewise a physician and surgeon
by profession, and after growing to manhood
856
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
he moved from his home in Connecticut to
Illinois, later coming to j\Iissouri, where he
passed the closing years of his life. He mar-
ried Miss Margaret Thompson and to them
were born five children who grew to matu-
rity, the subject of this review being the fifth
in order of birth. Dr. Benjamin R. Hemp-
stead was born on the 26th of August, 185-i,
and he received his early education in the
public schools of Egypt ilills. Later he en-
tered the State Normal School at Cape Gi-
rardeau, Missouri, but he was forced to leave
that institution prior to graduation on ac-
count of impaired condition of his health.
Contracting tuberculosis, he was sent to
Texas, where out-of-door life and treatment
finally cured him. After remaining in the
Lone Star state for about one year he re-
turned to Missouri and, locating at Cape Gi-
rardeau, began to read medicine under the
able preceptorship of Dr. J. H. Rider. Sub-
sequently he was matriculated as a student
m tJie i\iissouri iledical College, at St. Louis,
in which well ordered institution of learning
he was graduated as a member of the class
of 1880, with the degree of Doctor of iledi-
cine. He ina!ugurated the active work of his
profession at Egypt Mills, where he was en-
gaged in continuous practice for fully a score
of years and where he won renown as a
physician and surgeon of unusual skill and
ability. In 1903 he came to Cape Girardeau,
and here resided until his death, which was
caused by appendicitis. He controlled a
splendid and extended patronage in this city
and in the territory normally tributary
thereto.
On the 5th of November, 1891, was sol-
emnized the marriage of Dr. Hempstead to
Mrs. Betty Russell Shaner. widow of AVade
Shaner and a daughter of Elam Russell. By
her first marriage Mrs. Hempstead became
the mother of one daughter, ^Marie Shaner,
who is now living at home. To Dr. and
Mrs. Hempstead were bom three children:
Mary D., Gertrude Fay, and James Elam. In
his religious faith Dr. Hempstead was a de-
vout member of the Presbyterian church
and in this connection it is interesting to
note that Edwin Hempstead, great uncle of
the Doctor, was instrumental in establish-
ing the first church of this denomination
west of the Mississippi river, he having come
to the city of St. Louis as early as the year
1811.
In politics Dr. Hempstead was an uncom-
promising advocate of the cause of the Dem-
ocratic party and at the time of his death
he was a member of the city council of Cape
Girardeau. "While a resident of Egypt Mills
he was the popular and efficient incumbent
of the office of postmaster in that place for
a period of fourteen years. In fraternal
channels he was affiliated with the Masonic
order, having completed the circle of the
York Rite branch and being a valued and
appreciative member of the lodge, chapter
and commanderj'.
H. A. Sugg. A man of superior business
intelligence and judgment, H. A. Sugg, of
Kennett, is prominently identified with one
of the foremost industries of Dunklin county,
being president and manager of the Plant-
ers' Gin Company, which owns several plants
and gives employment to many men. Born
at Dyersburg, Dyer county, Tennessee, H. A.
Sugg grew to manhood in the cotton belt, and
as a young man became familiar with cotton
ginning in his native state, having been there
engaged in the cotton trade fifteen years be-
fore coming to Dunklin county to assume
charge of the affairs of the company with
which he is now associated.
In 1906 the Planters' Gin Company v>as
organized with a capital of twent.y-five thou-
sand dollars, and with its present efficient
officers. H. A. Sugg being president, and
manager, and George Ferguson secretary and
treasurer. It was started with three plants,
one at Hayti, Pemiscot county, one at Hol-
comb, and one at Kennett, where the main
office is also located. Tlie business increased
with siTch wonderful rapidity from the very
beginning that other plants were soon re-
Quired, and have since been established in the
following-named places: at Gibson, Frisbee.
Octa and Senath. in Dunklin county, and at
Nimmons, Arkansas. These various plants
have an average capacity of from eight hun-
dred to one thousand bales each, or a business
amounting to about three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars a year. Each plant main-
tains its own gin, buying cotton from local
growers, and also carrying on a custom trade,
and in the ginning season one hundred men,
mostly from Dunklin county, are employed,
the Company's monthly pa.v roll in each
plant amounting to nearl.v one thousand dol-
lars. The head office of the firm is at Ken-
nett, and the cotton is sold direct from that
office. The ginning property is now valued
at fifty thousand dollars or more, and is one
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
857
of the most extensive and prosperous of the
kind in Missouri.
Alonzo T. Harlow. The late Alonzo
Thomas Harlow was for man.y .years a valued
factor and an honored resident of this sec-
tion. He was born, JMarcli 24, 1840, in Har-
risonville, Illinois, and there received his
early education. He subsequently entered
Shurtleff College, at Upper Alton, Illinois.
and was graduated from that institution with
the class of 1861. About the time of the at-
tainment of his majority he went to St. Louis
and there secured a position with the firm of
Harlow & Wall, commission merchants, as
bookkeeper. When he severed his connection
with that tirm it was to engage' in business
independently, embarking in the commission
business in St. Louis. Eventually he took in
a partner, and the firm became known as that
of Harlow, Gelston & Company, and later,
with the retirement of Mr. Gelston. he organ-
ized the firm of Harlow, Spencer & Company.
He encomitered very definite success, his
career continuing very interruptedly for
several years, until failing health made it
necessary for him to retire from the firm and
go to California to recuperate.
In 1885 the firm of Harlow & Spencer
failed, and Mr. Harlow, with the fine cour-
age which characterized his every relation,
assumed the indebtedness of the firm. He
then became associated with the Nansnn Com-
mission Company and continued with them
for eight years, and at the end of that period
he and Mr. Spencer again went into partner-
ship, the Spencer-Harlow Commission Com-
pany takin"- its place among the important
concerns of its kind. This arrangement.
however, preceded the death of IMr. Harlow
by only one year, his summons to the Great
Beyond occurring January .31, 1894, when he
^^rtually in the prime of life and use-
He was a man who enjoyed the con-
fidence of all those who knew him and he held
high place in mercantile and commission cir-
cles, as well as in social and civic life.
In 1881 Alonzo T. Harlow was elected vice
president of the ]\Ierchants' Exchange, and
just before his demise he was elected to the
office of president. He was a member of the
Masonic lodge, and the high principles for
which this ancient organization stands were
with him far more than a rhetorical expres-
sion, for he exemplified them in his daily liv-
ing. He also fraternized with the Knights
of Honor. He was a stanch Republican, one
of the leading ones of the section, in fact, and
at one time made an unsuccessful candidacy
for state representative, certain local condi-
tions bringing about his defeat. Some
twenty-five years previous to his death he
founded the Windsor-Harbor Presbyterian
church, of which he remained an active mem-
ber throughout his life.
ilr. Harlow was twice married, his first
wife being Miss Rhoda Israel, who died
twenty years after their union. In 1886 Miss
Lettia B. Waters, of Kimmswick, Jefferson
county, was united to him in marriage, and
their ideally happy companionship was only
of about eight years duration. Two sons were
born into their home — Alonzo W. and Logan
S. Mrs. Harlow, a lady of admirable char-
acter and charming personality, still resides
at Kimmswick, with her two sons. She, too,
is a member of the Presbyterian church. It
was in about the year 1868 that the late Mr.
Harlow came to Kimm.swick, where he built
the beautiful family home, but he continued
in business in St. Louis.
Alonzo W. Harlow, the elder of the sons, is
engaged in the surety bond business in St.
Louis, but he also retains his residence in
Kimmswick, his birthplace and the scene of
the greater part of his young life.
Barton Hates Boxer. Although still a
young man. Barton Hayes Boyer, prosecuting
attorney of Saint Francois county, is one of
the prominent and representative citizens of
Farming-ton. With an equipment which has
gained him recognition as one of the ablest of
lawyers, he has no inconsiderable fame in
local courts and, successful as he has been in
the past, it is firmly believed that the future
holds still greater honors.
Mr. Boyer was born October 10, 1877, at
French Village, Saint Francois county. His
father, Francis A. Boyer, was born in Jeffer-
son county in 1856 and passed his entire life
until he became of age upon a farm. He
took advantage of such simple educational
advantages as were proffered by the district
schools and when he came to manhood's es-
tate he for a time engaged independently in
farming. He subsequently engaged as a
miner at Bonne Terre and when the Doe Run
property was first opened he helped sink the
first shaft in the same. He continued in the
mines for a great many years or up to the
death of his wife, which occurred in 1891.
After that much lamented event he remained
for about one year at Knob Lick and in the
858
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
intervening time has lived in various places,
not having settled upon a permanent habita-
tion. He is now virtually retired from active
labor. The senior ^Ir. Boyer was married
in 1876 to Sarah E. Shumaker, daughter of
William G. Shumaker, a farmer located at
French Village. To this union the following
five children were born: B. H. Boyer. the
subject of this record ; Samuel G., located at
Grandin; Charles B., who is a citizen of
Graudiu; Nora E., widow of iMr. Garland;
and Mar}- E. In politics the head of the
house is an adherent of the policies and prin- ,
eiples of the "Grand Old Part.y;" his church
faith is Baptist; and he is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
To the public schools of Saint Francois
and Jefferson counties is Barton H. Boyer
indebted for his educational training. In
1893 he bade farewell to his desk in the school
room and went to Jefferson county, where
until 1897 he made his livelihood by working
on the farm and when opportunity offered
continuing his studies. In the year men-
tioned he matriculated at Carleton Institute,
where he studied for a twelvemonth and at
the end of that time he joined the Xavy and
remained in the same for two years, his con-
nection with that national institution taking
him to various interesting quarters of the
country. He then returned to Carleton In-
stitute, where he continued his studies, being
graduated in 1901, with the degree of Bach-
elor of Literature. During the years of study
and adventure he had gradually determined
to become a lawyer and the last year at col-
lege he studied law under a private in-
structor, Mr. James A. Abernathy, receiving
additional council and instruction from
Judge Carter and Messrs. George W. "Wilson,
Jerry S. Gossom, Jerre B. Burks and F. il.
Carter. On March 17, 1902, he was admitted
to the bar at Marble Hill and ever since that
time he has been in active practice, and with
the exception of a short time when he was
located at Elvine, he has been established at
Farmington. In 1902 he made an unsuccess-
ful run for prosecuting attorney on the Re-
publican ticket, the county, as was its
■wont, going strongly Democratic. Nothing
daunted, in 1908 Mr. Boyer made a second
run on the Republican ticket and this time
was elected, and at the election of 1910 suc-
ceeded himself. He is the present incumbent
of the office of prosecuting attorney and he
has ever brought ability and faithfulness to
the discharge of its duties.
On the 7th day of June, 1902, Mr. Boyer
was united in marriage to Rosetta "White, of
Ehdns, daughter of "W. R. "White, of St.
Louis, a stationarj' engineer, ilr. and Mrs.
Boyer share their pleasant and hospitable
home with a little daughter, Hiawatha, and
hold high place in popular confidence and
esteem.
Frederick Thiele. j\Ir. Thiele's parents
are natives of Germany. The father, John
Thiele, came to this country when only
eleven, and his mother, too, left the Father-
land when only a child. They settled in Cape
Girardeau county and were married there,
where they brought up a family of seven
children, of whom Frederick is the youngest.
On August 20, 1853, in Cape Girardeau
countj', Frederick Thiele was born. Until he
was eighteen, he remained at home and then
for two years worked out on the farms of
the district. At twenty he was married to
Adeline Hahs, daughter of Jesse Hahs, of
Bollinger county. At the time of his mar-
riage ^Ir. Thiele came into possession of one
hundred and twenty-two acres of land in
Bollinger county, which he held until 1906.
This land is now partially divided among
the children of Jesse Hahs. Mr. Thiele now
holds one hundred and twenty-five acres on
T^Tiitewater creek, all under cultivation. His
live stock comprises four horses, eight cat-
tle, forty sheep and five hogs.
Five children born to ]Mr. and Mrs. Thiele
are now living. These are Eli. born in 1879;
Joseph, 1883 ; Elizabeth, 188.5 ; Da3i:on, 1886 ;
and Octavia, in 1887. Joseph makes his
home with his father. He is married to
Daisy, daughter of John I\I. Johnson. The
Thiele family are members of the Lutheran
church.
Mr. Thiele's nephew, Ora Hahs, son of Eli
and Priscilla Crane Hahs, was born in 1886.
In 1905 he was married to ^Minnie Statler,
and they have three children. Clara Marie,
born in 1907 and twins, two years younger,
Pauline Elsie and Aline Elsie.
Jacob Day. In the agricultural life of
Saint Francois county, which plays a part so
important in the achievement of that pros-
perity which distinguishes it. Jacob Day is
an important factor. His property is at once
extensive and eligibly situated, and he is an
advocate of the new scientific methods in
agriculture which have reduced the great
basic industry to a sounder basis than ever
HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
859
before. Then, too, the development of the
lead resources of this section have had most
important bearing upon the fortunes of Mr.
Day, who recently sold three hundred and
fiftj'-seven acres to the Potosi Mines Com-
pany. In addition to his Saint Francois
county holdings he also owns land in Wash-
ington county.
Jacob Day was born November 18, 1853,
in the vicinity of Leadwood. His father,
George W. Day, was born in 1820, in either
Kentucky or Illinois, but at the age of eight
he came to this county with his parents, who
located near Leadwood and engaged in the
cultivation of the soil. The father secured
a limited education in the public schools and
then conducted farming operations, being
engaged as a farmer during his entire life-
time. He was married in 1849 to Sarah
Mitchell, and when she died she left a son,
George T. The father married again, in
1851, Mary "Walleu becoming his wife and
three children being born to them, namely:
Sarah, Jacob (immediate subject of this re-
view) and Mary H. ilr. Day was left father-
less at the age of two years, for the head of
the family died in 1855 and the young
mother was left with the care of four small
children. This brave and worthy woman sur-
vived her husband for more than half a cen-
tury, going on to the Undiscovered Country
in 1909. The elder sister of the subject,
Sarah, first married J. W. Carter, by whom
she had six children, and after his demise
married Joseph Kirkpatrick, one child hav-
ing been born to the second union. The
younger sister, ilary Helen, lives with her
brother upon the old homestead, which is
dear with the associations of many years.
The brother, George T., is a resident of
Seattle, Washington.
Jacob Day spent his early life on the farm,
in his .vouth learning the many secrets of
seed-time and harvest, and even in boyhood
coming to the determination to make agri-
culture his own occupation. He received his
education behind a desk in the country school
house, but through much reading and keen
observation has repaired many deficiencies
which the opportunities provided by the state
did not reach. He has been exceedingly suc-
cessful and now conducts one of the largest
farms in the locality, while at the same time
directing the affairs of his Washington
county property.
Mr. Day is unmarried. In politics he is a
Democrat, and has subscribed since his ear-
liest voting days to the measures and prin-
ciples for which the party stands. He is the
friend of good government and is interested
in all public issues. He is a loyal Odd Fel-
low and very popular in lodge circles.
Thomas Luther Hodges, M. D. Although
born in the state of Kentucky, IMissom-i has
been the home of Thomas Luther Hodges,
M. D., for a large portion of his life, although
at one time Arkansas came in for a share of
his citizenship. He is now a successful prac-
ticing physician of Esther, Saint Francois
county, and holds high' prestige with both
laity and fraternity. The birthdate of the
subject was January 17, 1868, and his young
eyes first opened upon the pleasant scenes of
Rowan county of the Blue Grass state. Both
of his parents were also born in Kentucky,
the father, William S. Hodges, having been
taken by his parents to this state as a small
cliild in 1835. The family located in north-
ern Jlissouri and there engaged in farming
until about the close of the Civil war, when
they returned to Kentucky. Throughout the
desolate period of the conflict between the
states, William S. was in the militia service.
In 1870 he returned to Missouri and located
in Knox county, where he conducted a farm
imtil his demise some four years later. Thus
the subject had the misfortune to be left
fatherless when onlj' about six years old. His
parents were married some time prior to
1860, the maiden name of his mother being
Elizabeth Humphrey, of Kentucky, and to
this union was born but the one son. The
mother is still living in Knox county, an
admirable and venerable lady over eighty
years of age. The elder Mr. Hodges, like his
son, was a Republican and his church mem-
bership was with the L'niversalists.
The early life of Dr. Hodges was spent in
Knox county, Missouri, and there he grew to
manhood. After securing such educational
benefits as were offered by the public scnools
of the locality, he entered Hurdland Academy
at Hurdland, Missouri, and after a course of
study there became a student in the Western
College at LaBelle. He was graduated from
both academy and college, from the latter
with the class of 1889. For five j'ears after
this he taught school and for one year was
engaged in the newspaper business, which has
often been called the best general education
in the world. It was after this that a long
gathering ambition to become a physician
came to the point of crystallization and he
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
entered the Barnes Medical College at St.
Louis, from which he took the degree of M.
D. with the class of 1898. When it came to
choosing a suitable location, Dr. Hodges first
located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he
carried on a general practice and where he
remained until 1905, when he went on the
road as a pharmaceutical salesman. In 1908
he came back to the state, whose charms had
ever remained vivid to him, and took up his
location in Esther, in the busy lead belt.
Here he now resides and carries on a large
general practice.
Dr. Hodges laid the foundation of a happy
married life when on the 21st day of April,
1899, he was united to Mrs. Molly Greene,
nee Snyder, of Dexter, Missouri. The doctor
takes great interest in the affairs of the
Masonic lodge and the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows and he stands as a fine rep-
resentative of the most excellent type of
citizen.
Isaac J. Pirtle. Southeast Missouri is one
of the greatest producers of lead in the
world, and no man in the region is better
known than Isaac J. Pirtle, state mine in-
spector. His residence is at Predericktown,
Missouri, and his headquarters are at the
Bureau of Mines and Mine Inspection, Jef-
ferson City, Missouri, and he and his sons
are particularly identified with the develop-
ment of the famous Mine LalMotte, a few
miles to the northeast of Predericktown, but
various members of the Pirtle family for sev-
eral generations have been strong agents in
the general progress of St. Prancois county
as well.
State Inspector Pirtle was born in St.
Francois county, February 2, 1853, and is
a son of Isaac N. and Susannah (Wilson)
Pirtle. In 1845, when thirty-six years of age,
his father came from Indiana to Missouri and
located on Castor river, that county, where
he continued until his death, in the early
nineties, to farm and to work as a black-
smith. He was a firm Republican and an in-
dustrious, good-hearted man, and was a most
earnest believer in Universalism, which, in
his younger days, was subject to much unde-
served ridicule. But Isaac N. Pirtle was a
man of convictions which could not be shaken
by such means, and held to his faith in the
midst of all the wickedness of the world,
dying in peace and with the confidence that
all would be well in the great everlasting
future.
A brother, Abner Pirtle, also came to St.
Prancois county at a somewhat later date
than Isaac N., prior to the Civil war, and
engaged there in farming.
Susannah Wilson (as Mrs. Isaac N. Pirtle
was known before her marriage) was born in
Kentucky in 1807, and not only proudly
claimed the state of Daniel Boone as her own,
but also relationship with the great western
pioneer, woodsman and hero. Her mother,
who died in the eighties, at the age of one
huncb-ed and two, was a second cousm of Mr.
Boone, the family name being the same. ilrs.
Susannah Pirtle had two brothers, John and
Allen Wilson, who were well known as sub-
stantial farmers, solid Republicans and
earnest Masons.
Isaac J. Pirtle is the youngest of four
sons and six daughters born to his parents,
of whom one brother and five sisters are liv-
ing. It is remarkable that all of the family
reaching maturity should have lived to be
over sixty years of age, except Isaac J., of
this biography, who bids fair to far exceed
that span of life. The following facts are
adduced as links in the family record, relat-,
ing to the ten children of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac
N. Pirtle: Jane is the widow of a Mr. Cox
of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Mary Ann (Hale) of
Southeast Missouri, is also a widow, with
several mature children; Cynthia A. (War-
ren), whose husband is likewise deceased, re-
sides in Joplin, Missouri; Ellen, who has
been twice manned, is a widow living in In-
diana; Hannah T. Gatewood, also a widow,
resides in Joplin, Missouri ; Rebecca died
young; Thomas Jefferson, a Union soldier in
the Civil war, was killed by guerrillas, and
left a wife and four children in St. Francois
county; William Henry, a retired farmer of
that county, has been thrice married and is
now a widower with several children; James
M. went to Washington county, Illinois, in
1861, and engaged in fanning, married and
reared a large family and died at the age of
sixty-eight years; and the further sketch of
the tenth and last-born follows:
Isaac J. Pirtle was educated and reared
in St. Francois county, obtaining the train-
ing which fitted him to buffet with the ad-
verse things of this life both in the public
schools and the common, but invaluable,
school of experience. He is largely self-edu-
cated, but is widely read and closely ob-
servant to seize that knowledge which will be
of practical use to him. The consequence is
that he carries about him no useless tools;
JU^a^ (2. (Mi
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
each are kept in readiness for some definite
purpose — wliieh is surely the secret of "Get-
ting on."
At the age of fourteen young Pirtle began
to work at Mine Lailotte, in the northeastern
part of Madison county, famous as being the
oldest lead, nickel and cobalt mine in the
United States, having been worked continu-
ously since 1717. On this historic mining
ground the industrious and ambitious boy
commenced to climb from the bottom of the
ladder. Round by round he climbed to his
first broad and prominent platform, where he
took his stand as mine superintendent of the
great mine, and the thorough and broad
knowledge which he evinced in that position,
as well as his marked executive ability, in-
duced Governor Hadley to honor him with
the inspectorship of lead and zinc mines in
eastern ^Missouri on the 15th of February,
1908. While he had been active in Republi-
can polities for many years, his bitterest po-
litical enemies have ever conceded his abso-
lute fitness for the responsible office which he
holds and honors.
On Augiist 2, 1871, Inspector Pirtle mar-
ried ]Miss Amanda P. Scott, and in the fol-
lowing year moved to Mine LaMotte, which
remained his home until his present appoint-
ment necessitated his residence at Fredericks-
town. At the time of assuming office he built
the fine residence in which he lives with his
wife and the younger children.
Mrs. Pirtle is a Tennessee lady, born March
2, 1853, and is but one month younger than
her husband. She is a daughter of John "W.
and Lucetta (Bennett) Scott, who became
settlers in St. Francois county in its pioneer
days. The father was both a farmer and a
carpenter, and both he and his wife are de-
ceased.
Mr. and IMrs. Isaac J. Pirtle have had
twelve children born to them, of whom seven
are living. One son, Medford, died at the
age of sixteen j-ears, and four others in in-
fancy. The seven who survive are as fol-
lows: Carrie Rosetta, now the wife of Charles
H. Berry, is the mother of three children, the
family residing on Castor river, Madison
county; Arthur Barton married ]\Iiss Lizzie
Tinkler and resides at Mine Lailotte with
his wife and two children ; Armenius Frank-
lin is a foreman at Mine LaMotte and by his
union with ]Miss Mary Combs is the father
of three children ; Augustus Theodore mar-
ried ^liss Emma Head, has two children, and
is a contractor located at Mine LaMotte;
Mabel, Edward Benson and George
Sterling are all at home attending school.
Other facts connected with older genera-
tions may also be added. Mr. Pirtle 's ma-
ternal grandmother lived to be one hundred
and two yeai-s old, and the men of the fam-
ily, while not attaining any remarkable age,
have always showed marked patriotism, from
the paternal grandfather, who was wounded
at the battle of Tippecanoe, to the brothers,
James M. and William H., who were gallant
soldiers of the Union army.
All the members of the Pirtle families,
whether residing at Frederickstown or ]\line
LaMotte are actively and widely associated
with the social and religious activities of their
home conununities, and are therefore strong
factors in the higher progress as well as the
material advance of that section of South-
east Missouri. Both parents are members of
the Baptist church. The mother is a member
of the Rebekahs while IMr. Pirtle is iden-
tified with the Arch degrees of Masonry and
his wife with the Eastern Star. Two of their
sons are active members of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and one is connected
with the Rebekahs. The leading family traits
are, in fact, sociability, reliability and moral-
ity, which traits have been the foundation
planks of the only true Americanism.
Charles J. Tual. One of the leading rep-
resentatives of his profession in southeastern
Missouri is Charles J. Tual, of Irouton, an
architect and builder of extensive operations.
He is an able exponent of the progressive
spirit and strong initiative ability which
have caused this place to forge so rapidly for-
ward and he has here attained a position of
prominence and influence as a business man
and as a loj-al and progressive citizen. Not
only is his executive capacity of the highest
character, but he has undeniable talent in the
line to which he has devoted his energies, and
the buildings which are the creation of his
original ideas are artistic and wholly satisfac-
tory. JMr. Tual has been engaged in his pres-
ent work in Ironton for the past ten years,
and his business has grown so steadily that
he now employs from ten to twenty-five men.
Among the buildings which he planned and
constructed are the R. D. Lewis Building, of
Arcadia, the I. G. Whitworth Building and
the William Trauernicht building. In 1911
he made the plans and erected the fine taber-
nacle of the St. Louis Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Ar-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
cadia, with a seating capacity of from one
thousand two hundred to one thousand five
hundred. This is a steel frame building,
with a tile roof — a model of its kind. Mr.
Tual operates in various other points in Mis-
souri, such as Potosi and Hornellville.
He whose name inaugurates this review is
a native son of the state, his birth having oc-
curred at Arcadia, April 14, 1870, the son of
Ezra C. and Vienna N. (Evans) Tual. He
began upon his present oecupatiou at the age
of twenty-one years and has continued thus
engaged except for an interim of eight years,
from 1893 to 1900 when, in Idaho and Mon-
tana, be tried out his fortunes in placer min-
ing. While in the far west he also engaged
as a contractor and superintended the erec-
tion of several important buildings at Butte,
Montana. He was very successful there as
in the other cities in which he has worked.
He has encountered his fairest fortunes in
Ironton, however, but his success has been
the logical outcome of the fine qualities above
referred to.
:\Ir. Tual was married July 10, 1901, Miss
Anna Kendal, daughter of Charles Kendal,
becoming his wife. Mr. Kendal came to Iron
Mountain about the year 1870, there engag-
ing in mercantile business, and later, upon
coming to Ironton, he opened a business of
the same kind. Mr. and Jlrs. Tual have one
daughter, Arline, born June 27, 1903, at
Ironton. They are highly esteemed members
of society and their residence is one of the
handsomest and most modern in Ironton and
most modern in Ironton. This newly com-
pleted abode of nine rooms is made of con-
crete block and is fully equipped with all the
modern improvements, including steam heat.
It is located on Knob street and is the centre
of a gracious hospitality. In politics Mr.
Tual is a stanch adherent of the Democratic
party, and is interested in all matters of pub-
lic moment.
The father of the foregoing, Ezra C. Tual,
deceased, was a well-known and highly re-
spected citizen of Iron county. This gentle-
man, whose demise occurred July 22, 1908,
at his home in Arcadia, was born in Burling-
ton county, New Jersey, February 19, 1829,
the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Crock-
ford) Tual, both of whom lived and died in
New Jersey. Samuel Tual was a carpenter
by trade. Ezra C. was reared in his native
state and received a good common school
education, but the more important part of his
culture came from other sources, for he trav-
eled extensively and was a great reader and
observer, who all his life enjoyed the riches
of a well-stored mind. He traveled in South
America and many other foreign countries
and in foreign climes, as well as in New
Jersey and Missouri, engaged in his trade,
which was that of a blacksmith and wagon-
maker. After his globe-trotting he returned
to America and spent some years in the mid-
dle western states, such as Iowa, finally locat-
ing in Arcadia, Missouri, in 1860, and there
for years conducting a shop. In 186-1 he re-
moved to Montana and for two years and in
1876 went to the Black Hills, South Dakota,
where he engaged in mining and other busi-
ness for another period of time. He subse-
quently returned to ilissouri, where he made
his home until his death, making several
visits back to New Jersey. He was a Repub-
lican in political conviction and no citizen
was more highly regarded or better liked.
He was married, January 29, 1863, to Miss
Vienna Evans, who survives him and makes
her home at Arcadia. Mrs. Tual, who enjoys
the affection of countless friends, was born
at Farmington, Saint Francois county, Mis-
souri, August 29, 1842, and is a daughter of
George F. and Columbia F. (Brinker)
Evans. Her father was born in Belleview
Valley, Washington countj-, ilissouri, Aug-
ust 21, 1819, and died March 9, 1895. He
was a carpenter and builder and resided for
some years at Farmington, eventually remov-
ing to Crawford county. He latterly was
identified with mercantile pursuits. He died
at an advanced age at Berrymau, Missouri,
while en route to Steelville. His parents
were William and Mahala (George) Evans,
natives of Virginia and Tennessee respect-
ively. Both accompanied their parents to
this state in youth and married here.
Throughout a great part of his active life
William Evans taught school. The Evans
family is one of the oldest in America, no less
than nine generations having been repre-
sented in the land of the stars and stripes.
It is of Welsh origin. Mrs. Ezra C. Tual
came to Arcadia in 1858 and has made her
home here in all the years following. She is
a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
South.
Mr. and Mrs. Ezra C. Tual were the par-
ents of the following five sons and two
daughters: Selden Jerome, born November 4,
1863, a member of the mercantile firm of Tual
Brothers, Arcadia. He married Blanche
Hatton, now deceased, and has one son,
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
863
Blanchard. George Evans, born August 21,
1866, is a conductor on the Atchison Topeka
& Santa Fe Railroad, and resides at Newton,
Kansas. He took as his wife Belle Duncan,
of St. Louis, and they have twin sons, George
and Robert. Fannie was born March 10,
1868, and died November 27, 1868. Charles
J. is the immediate subject of this record.
Elwood Collins, born January 21, 1871, is a
member of the mercantile firm of Tual
Brothers, of Arcadia. He married Cora il.
ilatkin, daughter of AYilliam Alatkiu, mem-
tioued elsewhere in this work devoted to
representative Missourians. They have three
daughters. — Eugenia, Hazel and Julia,
Grace, born December 5, 1873, is the wife of
I. G. Whitworth, of whom more extended
mention appears on other pages of this re-
view. Welden J., born November 26, 1876,
is an Arcadia citizen and is engaged in
carpentry in the emplo.v of his brother
Charles J. He married Ada Palmer, of Iron-
ton, and they have one daughter, Gladys ]\I.
The mercantile firm of Tual Brothers, at
Arcadia, was organized in 1899 and is an im-
portant concern. They carry a heavy general
stock of groceries and merchandise and also
hay, corn, bran, mixed feed and the like.
The Tual Brothers are owners of both store
and stock.
Ezra C. Tual was postmaster of Arcadia in
the administration of President McKinley,
and he was succeeded by his son, of the firm
of Tual Brothers. The office was located in
the store for some five years.
Andrew Parker Mackley, of Desloge, is
one of the most prominent financiers and
business men of the Southeast Missouri lead
belt, and through his ownership and execu-
tive management exercises an important in-
fluence in various lines of business in this
state and elsewhere.
A native of Southeast Missouri, he was
born in St. Genevieve county, August 7, 1874,
was reared on a farm, obtaining his educa-
tion in public schools and at Carlton College
in Farmington. At the age of twenty-one
he entered educational work for three years,
teaching in the public schools of Kinsey and
Bloomsdale. For one summer during this
time he was assistant cashier in the St. Louis
office of the Prudential Life Insurance Com-
pany. He then took charge of the postof-
fice at Desloge for Postmaster A. T. Spald-
ing, continuing in that capacit.v four years
and a half. In January, 1903, Mr. Mackley
became cashier of the Bank of Desloge, a
position in which he has acquired the confi-
dence of a large business public and has made
the bank one of the strongest institutions in
this part of the state. He has been continu-
ously in this position with the exception of
five months in 1910, when he had charge of
the Hopewell Plantation in Louisiana and the
Bank of ilonroe, that state. He is president
and owns a fourth interest in the Hopewell
plantation, which is capitalized at one hun-
dred thousand dollars. In addition to lands
near Desloge and town property, Mr. ilack-
ley is interested in Arkansas and Texas real
estate. He was a former president of the
Lead Belt Telephone Company.
His father was Hiram Parker Mackley,
who was born in Calloway county, Ohio, July
20, 1845. When he was seven years old he
was taken by his father, a carpenter by trade,
to Keokuk, Iowa, and in 1855 the family
home was established in St. Genevieve
county, this state, where he grew to man-
hood and lived until 1881. He then bought
a farm in Marks valley, near Farmington,
and lived there until his death, September
20, 1910. In politics he was a Republican.
He married, March 10, 1868, ^Miss Elizabeth
Hipes, daughter of Bart. Hipes, a farmer of
St. Genevieve county. She died in 1903, hav-
ing been the mother of ten children, of whom
Andrew was the third and oldest son.
Andrew P. Mackley is a member of the
Missouri Athletic Club of St. Louis, is a
Scottish Rite Mason, and member of the
Knights of Pythias and Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the ilethodist
Episcopal church, South. In politics he is
Republican. On May 26, 1897, he married
Miss Minnie Doughty, daughter of D. J.
Doughty, of Farmington. Of the three chil-
dren born to their marriage, one is living,
Ann Elizabeth.
J. G. BuRCHiTT, M. D. In professional
distinctions Dr. J. G. Burchitt, of Cardwell,
easily stands in the foremost rank of the
medical profession of Southeast Missouri.
He enjoys what is probably the largest prac-
tice in southern Dunklin county, and as a
doctor and citizen is well known throughout
this portion of the state. A man of large in-
terests and versatile in his accomplishments,
he has done much of real public service for
his community. In recognition of his prac-
tical work in the promotion of the arts and
science, the Roval Society of Arts recently
86-i
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
bestowed upon him a membership in that
body, this honor coming to him unsolicited,
and he is one of the two or tliree citizens ot
the state to be thus distinguished.
Dr. Burchitt is a native of Virginia, where
he was born March 27, 1864. His early
American ancestors were French Huguenots
and among the earliest of that people to set-
tle in the colony of South Carolina. His early
education was acquired in the Richmond
high school, two years in the military academy
of Blacksburg, Virginia, and for his profes-
sional training he entered the Louisville,
Kentuckj% Medical College, where he was a
student three years, and then a year in the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of New
York city. From 1886 to 1891 he was en-
gaged in practice at Flagfork, Kentucky, and
had a large practice in that small town. He
then moved to Pleasureville in the same state,
and there, in 1892, was married to Miss Maria
jMaddox. Her family was among the first
settlers of Kentucky, her grandfather being
considered the first settler of Dutch stock.
Her old home is covered by a deed to which
is attached the signature of Daniel Boone.
Dr. Burchitt practiced at Pleasureville four
years and then moved to Lexington. While
there he was commissioned, in 1898, as lirst
lieutenant and assistant surgeon in the army
during the Spanish-American war. He ar-
rived at Matanzas, Cuba, four da.vs after the
sixty U. S. volunteers had hauled down the
Spanish flag in the sight of fifteen thousand
hostile Spanish troops, that being on June 1,
1898. He was on detached duty as lieuten-
ant and was in the field most of the time. He
remained in Cuba until December, 1899, and
on his return to the United States located in
St. Louis for a short time.
In search of a place that would improve
his own health, and having heard much of
Southeast Missouri, in 1900 he came to Card-
well with the intention of staying but a short
time. He began practice and has been here
ever since. He has been an efficient factor in
improving the healthfulness of this country.
At first malaria was almost endemic, but it
has decreased to a remarkable degree in the
recent years, partly because of the general
development of the country and also because
the people are better trained to fight off the
disease. He was physician of the town dur-
ing a smallpox scare, and has been the health
ofificer of Cardwell throughout his residence
here. He was also elected a member of the
board of health of Dunklin countv in 1904
and served seven years, the longest service by
any one individual. During that time he
secured the passage of a local law through
the county court forbidding the sale of patent
nostrums, and it is now enforced to some ex-
tent. Dr. Burchitt has also been honored
with the office of mayor of Cardwell for one
term. He has prospered himself as well as
helping the community to better prosperity.
He is owner of a store and other property
in Cardwell and also has property near
Shelbyville, Kentuckj'.
Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree
Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite, St.
Louis Consistory, No. 1, a past master of the
Masonic blue lodge at Cardwell, is captain of
the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias,
is past chief of the Tribe of Ben Hur, and is
also a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, the Elks, the Hoo-Hoos and the
Woodmen of the World. He is one of the
two persons in Cardwell whose church affili-
ations are Episcopalian.
Thomas D. Jones, treasurer of Iron
county, Missouri, is a member of a family
well and favorably known not only in the
county in which they reside but throughout
southeastern Missouri. Mr. Jones has filled
his important office with credit to himself
and honor to his constituents and has the en-
viable distinction of having made a clean rec-
ord in politics, a far too infrequent oc-
currence in this day of bribery and corrup-
tion.
Mr. Jones' birth occurred on Atigust 16,
1882, in the southern part of Iron county,
near the town of Brunot, his parents being
Solomon F. and ilargaret (Stevenson) Jones,
of whom more detailed mention will be made
in succeeding paragraphs. They are the
parents of ten children, four of whom are
doctors, either of medicine or dental surgery.
Dr. Charles H. Jones was graduated in the
class of 1902 from the American Medical
College, St. Louis, and he is now practicing
medicine and surgery at Brunot, Missouri;
Dr. Edward Jones, a graduate from the same
college in the class of 1907, has established a
good practice at Lilbourne, Missouri; Dr.
Noah Jones was graduated from the Barnes
Dental College, of St. Louis, Missouri, in the
class of 1907, and is now located at Camp-
bell, jMissouri ; Dr. George L. Jones, gradu-
ating from the same college of dentistry in
the class of 1911, has just established himself
at Pigott, Arkansas ; the next son, Owen, died
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
at the age of seventeen years; Fraiik, the
fifth son, has attended the Cape Girardeau
normal school for two years and has also
taught in Iron, Madison and New Madrid
counties; the two youngest boys, Ray and
Robert, are at home with their parents at
Brunot ; and the only daughter, Cora, is the
wife of C. J. Russell of Brunot.
Thomas U. Jones was reared on his father's
farm in Iron county, obtaining his elementary
educational training in the public schools at
Brunot. Following this he entered Concor-
dia College in Wayne county, where he took
up academic work and was graduated with
the class of 1902. Immediately after his
graduation he went to the normal school at
Cape Girardeau, and after one year's work
in that well-known institution he taught for
half a dozen years in Madison and Iron coun-
ties. On the 1st of January, 1907, he was
elected to the office of treasurer of Iron
county, then was re-elected to the same posi-
tion and is now serving his second term.
In the year 1906, Mr. Jones was married
to iliss Lulu Matkin, a native of Madison
county, where her father, W. ]\I. Matkin, was
formerly county judge; he now makes his
home in Iron county. Mr. and Mrs. Jones
have one son, Marvin. From his boyhood the
subject has given unwavering allegiance to
the traditions of the Democratic party and
he is now one of the stanehest Democrats
•nithin the borders of the county. Frater-
nally he is affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the ]\Iodern Wood-
men of America; and in a religious way he
holds membership with the Christian church.
Considered from every viewpoint he is a man
worthy of respect and esteem.
Solomon F. Jones, father of the foregoing,
is one of the well-known and highly esteemed
agriculturists, his well-cultivated farm of
one hundred and ten acres being located
some two miles north of Brunot. He is one
of those loyal citizens who were born within
the pleasant boundaries of Iron county and
have paid it the highest compliment within
their power by electing to remain here perma-
nently. He was born in September, 1852,
and is the son of Shadraeh and Jane (King)
Jones, natives of Tennessee, who came when
young with their parents to ^Missouri. The
family is of Welsh descent. Solomon F.
was one of a family of nine children, of whom
the following survive at the present time:
William, a farmer, whose estate is situated
near Brunot ; Thomas, of Reynolds county.
I\Iissouri ; Shadrack, of California ; Xancj%
now Mrs. Newton, of Arkansas; and the sub-
ject. Henry and Elizabeth (^Irs. Stevenson)
are deceased, the former having died when a
young man and the latter when about tifty
.years of age.
Solomon F. Jones was reared near Brunot ;
received his education in the subscription
schools and when he left the parental roof-
tree to begin his independent career it was as
a farmer. He was united in marriage in
1872 to ]\Iiss ilargaret Stevenson, born in
Dent county, Jlissouri, in 1858, the daughter
of Joseph and Catherine (Cox) Stevenson,
both scions of pioneer ^Missouri families. In
his political convictions Mr. Jones is a Dem-
ocrat and he has warmly upheld the policies
and principles of that party in which he be-
lieves, ilrs. Jones is an earnest member of
the Baptist church.
W. i\I. Blaylock. Vigilant, active and en-
ergetic, W. j\I. Blaylock is amply qualified
for the responsible position he is filling as
manager of the Kennett office of the IModern
Gin Compress Company, of Little Rock,
Arkansas, having charge of the company's
southeastern iMissoui-i interests. A native of
Tennessee, he was born June 10, 1870, in Car-
roll county, where he received his prelim-
inary education. His father. Rev. J. il.
Blaylock, a Baptist minister, came with his
family to Dunklin county, ^lissouri, in 1884,
and has since been here engaged in his min-
isterial labors, being now a resident of
Kennett.
Having completed his early studies in ]\Iis-
souri, W. i\I. Blaylock subsequently lived for
a time in Tennessee, and was afterwards em-
ployed by the firm for which he is now man-
ager as a traveling salesman, selling gin and
compress machinery, his territory covering
parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Having served in that capacity two j-ears,
Mr. Blaylock assisted in building the gin and
compress plant at Kennett, and has since had
control of it.
The Modern Gin Compress Company, with
its main office at Little Rock, Arkansas, has
three plants in Dunklin county, Missouri,
there being one at Kennett, one at Holeomb
and another at Senath. Each plant has a gin
compressing machine, the capacity of the
three plants combined being from six thou-
sand to seven thousand bales annually. The
firm buys cotton of the local growers, gins
and compresses it, and sells direct to English
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
manufacturers at Manchester, England. A
compressed bale of cotton is twenty-four
inches by twenty-four inches, by forty-eight
inches, and weighs from five hundred to six
hundred pounds, requiring a pressure of
from six hundred to six hundred and fifty
tons on a twenty-inch hydraulic ram. The
cotton thus baled can be delivered in Man-
chester, England, for sixty-five cents per
hundred weight, while in the ordinary bale
it would cost that amouut to send it to New
Orleans. This company also manufactures
gin and compress machinery at Little Rock,
and are extensive dealers in cotton, operating
in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The company
has likewise established a wholesale and re-
tail feed trade at Kennett, with a branch feed
store at Senath, and has a factor}' for produc-
ing corn feed productions, its business in
this line being constantly increased and ex-
tended. Mv. Blajdock employs in the Ken-
nett plant from twenty-six to thirty men in
the cotton season, while in summer he keeps
sis men busily employed in the feed plant.
Mr. Blaylock married, in 1889, Eliza C.
"Wliittaker, a daughter of the late Rev. M. J.
"N^liittaker, who was for many years one of
the leading Baptist ministers of Dunklin
county. Three children have been born of
their union, namely: Aubrey C. (a book-
keeper in the feed store), R. E., and Blanche.
]Mr. Blaylock is a regular attendant of the
Baptist church, of which his wife is a consist-
ent member. Politically he is afBliated with
the Democratic party, but is not an active
worker.
GusTAVus Adolphus Wenom. a popular
and able young man, with a high record for
executive efficiency, is Gustavus Adolphus
AVenom, cashier of the Bank of Kimmswick
and postmaster of the town since the year
1906. He is a native son of the type of wliieh
Kimms^vick is justly proud, his birth having
occurred within the pleasant boundaries of
the place May 1.5, 1874. His father, the late
Jolm Wenom, one of Kimmswick 's leading
citizens, was born June 24, 1837, in Alsace-
Lorraine. Germany, then France, and came
with his parents, Florence and Fannie
"Wenom. and two brothers. Frank and Joseph,
to America, landing in New York, in 18.52,
very appropriately on the Fourth of July,
for they were all to become the most loyal
and enthusiastic of American citizens. In
September of the same year they took up their
residence on a farm some three miles from
Kimmswick. The subject's grandfather was
not to enjoy long residence in the new
country, for lie died in 1855, the grandmother
surviving until 1868. The father became a
member of Company A, of Colonel Rankin's
regiment of enrolled militia, and continued
as such during the progress of the Civil war.
He was married previous to that date. Miss
Catherine Miller, a native of Germany, be-
coming his wife, January 12, 1859, and eight
children were born to them, all but one sur-
viving at the present time. They are as fol-
lows: William; Ida, now Mrs. Koch; Katie,
now Mrs. Schwantner; Oscar; Otto; Gus-
tavus A., of this review; and John Jr.
John Wenom farmed until the year 1864,
in which year he made a new departure by
opening a meat market at Kimmswick and
conducting it until 1881. Sub-sequent to that
he engaged in the grain and insurance busi-
ness and for sixteen years he worked as road
superintendent, filling this important office
with credit to himself and benefit and satis-
faction to his neighbors. The length of time
he held the position is sufficient to show how
well he performed its duties and an elequent
tribute to his worth and capacity. He held
membership in the Feuton Farmei-s' Club
and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
The first Mrs. Wenom died August 14, 1900,
deeply regretted by the many who knew and
loved her. On October 17, 1901. he con-
tracted a second union, ]Mrs. Elizabeth
Hirschfield becoming his wife and the mis-
tress of his household. This worthy lady sur-
vives him, making her home at Kimmswick,
Missouri. Mr. Wenom was one of the lead-
ing spirits in the promotion of the Bank of
Kimmswick, and in this substantial monetary
institution he was interested to a considerable
extent as a stock-holder and director. He
was a stanch Republican, at a time when Jef-
ferson oovmty was strongly Democratic, prov-
ing that nothing but downright conviction
influenced him. He was a man of strong
character and ability, and the things he un-
dertook to do he did well, doubtless the prin-
cipal factor in his success. He was indeed a
success in all the relations of life, and was a
kind hu.sband and indulgent and loving
father. He was one of the self-made men
and by indomitable purpose and energy- over-
came great obstacles. He came to the T'^nited
States a stranger in a stranere land, with a
limited education and sadly handicapped by
his ignorance of the lanfninge. but he was
nothing daunted by these circumstances.
dtfC^^ ^ ^^ui-^-i^-x^x^^^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI
867
The death of John Wenom occurred June 21,
1909, but his revered memory wiU long re-
main green in the eommimity which was his
home for so many years.
The early life of Gustavus Adolphus We-
nom who in his high ideals of citizenship re-
sembles his father, was passed in Kimmswick,
where he resided continuously until the age
of sixteen years. At that time, having fin-
ished his public school education, Mr. Wenom
took a business course in Bryant & Stratton's
Commercial College at St. Louis, from which
institution he was graduated in 1891.
Eciuipped with a thorough business training
and plenty of native ability, he took a posi-
tion with the Singer Sewing Machine Com-
pany at St. Louis and remained with that
concern for several years. In 189i-1895 he
held a position as cashier with the Monte-
Sano Park, near Kimmswick, resuming his
residence in Jefferson county, and in August,
1895, he became deputy circuit clerk of the
county, which position he retained until 1899.
From the year mentioned until 1903 he was
bookkeeper with the Meyer-Schmidt "Whole-
sale Grocery Company at St. Louis and the
following year, 1901, when the Bank of
Kimmswick was organized, he returned to
his native town to accept the ofSce of cashier,
which he retains to the present time. In
1906 he was appointed postmaster of Kimms-
wick, which at that time was only a fourth
class office, but in January, 1910, the office
was advanced to third class. Mr. "VVeuom
was again appointed by President Taft to the
postmastership and his brother, John Jr., acts
as assistant postmaster.
Mr. Wenom was happilv married October
4, 1901, iliss Blanche Sibley, of Salt Lake
City, Utah, becoming his wife. They share
their home with two sons. Freeman Sterling
and Gustavus Adolphus, Jr. The subject is
Republican in politics and holds membership
in the Court of Honor.
Judge Johx Lilburn Thomas. Judge
Thomas was born September 16, 1833, near
the present Belleview post office, then in
Washington county, now Iron county, Mis-
souri. His parents, James Wilton Thomas
and Eliza Ann Johnson, were born, raised
and married in Albemarle county, Virginia.
In 1826 thev moved to Washington count v,
Missouri. His father was a son of Captain
John Thomas and Frances (Lewis) Thomas
and through his mother was descended from
the Warners, the Lewises of Warner Hall and
the Randolphs, all of Virginia. Judge
Thomas' grandfather was a revolutionary
soldier and through him he became a mem-
ber of The Sons of the Revolution and he is
also a member of the Society of Colonial
Wars through ten ancestors, whose names
and services are recorded in the Llissouri
Register of that Society for 1909. His pa-
rents had eight children, three born in Vir-
ginia and five in Missouri, he now being the
sole survivor of the family. His father tilled
a small farm every year and he was justice
of the peace of Washington county two years
(1842-43), but his life profession was teach-
ing. He and his wife were Methodists and
their home was the stopping and preaching
place for the circuit riders of that denomi-
nation on their periodical rounds. The father
died October 4, 1845, and the mother. Novem-
ber 29, 1875.
At his father's death Judge Thomas was
only twelve years old and the oldest son at
home, and on him fell the duty of managing
all out-door work. He attended some short
term schools and did all sorts of farm work
till he was nearly seventeen. Having inher-
ited some means from their uncle, John L.
Thomas, of Virginia, the mother moved to
Arcadia and put the four youngest children
in the Arcadia High School in April, 1850.
With the money he inherited and the income
from a six months' school he taught in 1852,
Judge Thomas was enabled to gi'aduate in
that school in the B. A. degree in July, 1853.
He then taught school for two years and a
half and read law at odd times. On March
27, 1855. he was licensed to practice law and
in the fall of that year opened an office at
Steelville.
He was united in marriage at Hillsboro,
December 25, 1856. to Sarah Ellen, daughter
of Judge Philip Pipkin, and granddaughter
of Phillip Pipkin, of Tennessee, a colonel in
the war of 1812-14, and great-orranddaughter
of Lester Morris, a revolutionan' soldier of
Virginia. There were born to them twelve
children, five of whom are living: Kora (Mrs.
J. W. Evens'), of Bii-miugham, Alabama;
Winna (Mrs. W. B. Morgan), of Trinidad,
Colorado; Zoe (Mrs. E. Y. Mitchell, of
Springfield. Missouri: Emily (Mrs. Frank
Hamel). of De Soto. Missouri; and Richard
'M.. an attorney of Washington. D. C. The
latter married a IMiss Johnson of that city.
Judge Thomas ran for assessor of Wash-
ington county in 1854. but was defeated.
He was countv attorney for Crawford county
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
in 1857-1858, and moving to Hillsboro in
September of that year, helped organize the
Jefferson County Teachers' Association in
1859, the first of its kind in Southeast Mis-
souri for the advancement of education. He
ran for circuit attorney in 1860. but was
defeated and was county attorney for Jeffer-
son county, 1863-64. He helped organize the
Jefferson County Immigration Society, 1866;
was elected its president and prepared for
the society a statement descriptive of the coun-
ty and its resources, published in the Hand
Book of Missouri, 1881. He took the lead
in a campaign for good roads, 1867-68, result-
ing in giving Jefferson county more improved
roads than any county in the state outside
of Jackson and St. Louis, and he also in-
corpoi'ated a company and superintended the
building of a rock road from Hillsboro to
Victoria 1870-72. He was elected to the Leg-
islature, 1870. and was requested by General
Francis P. Blair to put him in nomination
for the Senate, which he did in January,
1871. He was appointed chairman of the
Judiciary Committee of the House by
Speaker Wilson, giving him a state--\vide
prominence; ran for judge of the Supreme
Court in 1872, but was defeated; helped in-
corporate the Hillsboro High School. 1874
and became its president; and was elected
circuit judge in 1880 and re-elected. 1886.
He organized in 1881 "The Conference of
Nisi Prius Judges of Missoiiri," of which he
was president eleven years, and it still meets
annually. Judge Thomas moved to De Soto
in November. 1881, and in 1890 ran for judge
of the Supreme Court, but was defeated, and
was appointed in December of that year, by
Governor D. R. Francis, judge of the Su-
preme Court for two years, being defeated in
1892 for nomination to succeed himself. He
was appointed, in IMay. 1893, assistant at-
torney general for the post office department,
and held that office four years. A few years
ago he, as chairman of the De Soto Commer-
cial Club, headed the movement to install a
municipal water plant for the City, and the
people voted the bonds and the plant is now
in operation.
Judge Thomas has been a member of the
Masonic order for over fifty-five years, and
he and his wife are members of the Order of
the Eastern Star.
Judge Thomas served twelve years as a
judge, ten on the trial and two on the appel-
late bench. As trial judse he required the
.sheriff to open and adjourn court in the court
room instead of the outer window, and on de-
ciding eases he often wrote lengthy opinions
on questions of importance or public interest.
The two years he was judge of the Supreme
Court he wrote one hundred and fifty opin-
ions and he took a liberal and advanced posi-
tion on four questions of great public interest :
1. In the Thornton case, 108 Mo. Rep. 840,
in which the defendant was charged with
debauching a girl under eighteen under
promise of marriage, he set up the same
standard of morals for men as women in their
sexual relations. 2. In the Terry case, 106
Mo. Rep. 209, he held that the statute, mak-
ing it a felony for a man, holding a confiden-
tial relation to a girl under eighteen to de-
bauch her, embraced those hiring servant
girls to work in their homes. In the Thorn-
ton case he so vigorously denounced men who
debauched young girls under promise of mar-
riage and then deserted them that it is prob-
able his opinion in that case had some
influence in inducing the Legislature a few
years later to extend the age limit of girls
in such cases, from eighteen to twenty-one
years. 3. In the Loomis case, 21 Lawyers
Reps. Ann. 789, he iipheld the constitution-
ality of the anti "track store" statute, for-
bidding the payment of wages in anything
biit lawful money, but a majority of the
court was against him on this point. 4. In
the Relyea case, 112 Mo. Rep. 86, he clearly
stated what he thought the law of fellow
service in personal injury eases was, in a
dissenting opinion of great cogency; and it
is probabl.v this opinion and others he wrote
on the same question had some weight in the
enactment of an employers liability act a few
years later. 5. In the Gratiot case, 16 Law-
yers Reps. Ann. 189. he defined very clearly
the limitation of the power of the court to
take a question of fact from the jury. His
opinions in the Gratiot and Relyea cases,
however, proved to be his undoing politically,
for by them he incurred the displeasure of
the great corporations which, holding the bal-
ance of power in the Democratic convention
row margin for the nomination as a candidate
of July, 1892, defeated the Judge by a nar-
to succeed himself. Of all his judicial work,
however, he prizes most his position in the
Thornton case, in defence of young girls
against the wiles of unscrupulous men. He
says if he were required to write his epitaph
and were limited to a single act of his life he
would have it stated he was the author of
the opinion of the court in that case.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
As attorney for the postal department
Judge Thomas found himself in a new field,
with few precedents to guide him. He
dealt with foreign as well as domestic ques-
tionis. He ruled that our government could
refuse to carry, in its mails, matter advertis-
ing lotteries authorized by foreign govern-
ments to raise public revenue and not vio-
late the comity of nations. In every case,
domestic or foreign, where an appeal was
taken to the Attorney General (first Richard
Olney and then Judson Harmon) or to the
courts, the decisions of Judge Thomas were
affirmed.
Raised by a Wliig father the predilections
of Judge Thomas were towards that party,
but it died about the time he was grown and
he soon became a Democrat. During the
war he was classed as a secessionist, was ar-
rested several times and required to take
the oath of loyalty. On one occasion he was
required to sign a bond that if found out-
side Federal lines he shoidd be shot. In
subseqiient years, however, he has often
said, in public speeches, that he rejoiced
that the war terminated in the preserva-
tion of the Union and the abolition of slav-
ery.
He continued to affiliate with the Demo-
cratic party till 1896, when, as he views it,
the party went over to populism and he re-
fused to follow. Now he thinks all parties
are teaching socialistic doctrines, though
denouncing socialism, and he is politically
homeless. He is an individualist and he
hates all phases of governmental paternal-
ism, whether it be interfering with business
or dictating what one shall eat, drink or
wear.
"When Judge Thomas quit office in 1897
he practiced law two years with his son,
John Lilburn Thomas, Jr., and then retired
from business. Since then he has devoted
himself mainly to literary pursuits, publish-
ing two works, one on "Non-Mailable Mat-
ter" treating of the law relating to lotteries,
frauds and obscenity in the mails and the
other on "Constructive Contempt," devoted
chiefly to a criticism of the IMissouri Su-
preme Court for nullifying, as unconstitu-
tional, a statute that had existed seventy-
five years, in order to enable the members
of the Court to sit as .judge and jurors to
determine whether a citizen had libelled them
in a newspaper article and fix the punish-
ment therefor. Besides these works he has
published scores of historical, political and
critical articles in the Press.
The religious creed of Judge Thomas, as
formulated by himself, is this: "I believe
I ought to be humble, patient, meek; I
ought to hunger and thirst after righteous-
ness and eschew evil ; I ought to love justice
and mercy and hate injustice and cruelty;
that I ought to do to others what I would
have them to do to me ; I ought to pluck the
beam out of my own eye before I try to take
the mote out of my brother's eye ; I ought to
help those who are not able to help them-
selves; I will be judged here and hereafter
according to the deeds done in the body and
I serve God best when I serve my fellows
best."
Judge Thomas is now an old man. He has
watched and studied the evolution of civil-
ization for sixty years and he still takes an
absorbing interest in current events and
watches the kaleidoscopic phases of domes-
tic and world affairs as they daily develop.
In his advanced age it is his fortiuie to re-
tain his mental faculties unimpaired to con-
tinue his literary work and to have the com-
panionship of the devoted wife who united
her life to his over fifty years ago.
Albert Wijlpert, county clerk of St.
Francois county. IMissouri, since 1910, is one
of the most active and influential Republi-
cans of this section and he has given a most
able and conscientious performance of the
duties of his important office. This is not to
say all, for in a previous career in the rail-
road and lead mining business he has had an
excellent opportunity to witness and assist in
the phenomenal growth of this section. Mr.
Wulfert is a native-born citizen of Missouri,
his birth having occurred at Gerald, Frank-
lin county, February 26, 1875. His father,
Julius Wulfert, was born in Berlin, Ger-
many. December 13, 1828, and came to Amer-
ica at the time"^of the Revolution of 1848. At
the time of the Civil war in this country his
sympathies, like those of most of his coun-
trymen on this side of the sea, were with the
cause of the Union. Not long after coming
here he located at Washington. Missouri, and
he subsequently removed to the vicinity of
Gerald, where he engaged in agriculture.
On March 9, 1856. he married IMarie Hart-
man of Campbellton, Missouri, and to this
union ten children were born, Albert being
the eighth in order of birth. At the time of
870
IIIST(3RY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Price's raid in the Civil war, the elder Mr.
Wulfert was at home on furlough from the
Union army and he was captured, although
his incarceration was of comparatively brief
duration. He resides at the present time at
Gerald, a prosperous farmer and honored
and useful citizen. He is Republican in pol-
itics and holds membership in the ]\Iasonic
order.
The early education of Albert Wulfert, of
this review, was secured in the common
schools in the vicinity of his home and also
from the father, a well educated man who
for a time maintained a private school for
the benefit of his sons and daughters and the
children of his neighbors. At the age of
seventeen years he entered the Warrensburg
Normal School and was in attendance there
during the term of 1892 and 1893. Follow-
ing that he taught school for a period of four
years and in 1897, with a view to making a
radical change of occupation, I\Ir. Wulfert
took a course in railroad and telegraph work
and the following year he located at Flat
River and became agent and operator at the
office at that place maintained by the Mis-
sissippi River & Bonne Terre Road. After
one year of this work he again made a com-
plete change of work and entered the employ
of the Doe Run Lead Company as time
keeper. At that time the Doe Run Lead
Company owned but one mine, but its growth
has been so great and continual that at the
present it owns seven. Flat River, when he
first went there, was but a small town, but
it has grown until today it is a city of five
thousand inhabitants.
Mr. Wulfert, at the time he came to Saint
Francois county, found the Democratic party
in complete control, the Republican party
having lost life and vigor through many de-
feats. With the initiative and purpose of a
born leader, Mr. Wulfert buckled on his Re-
publican armor and offered himself on the
sacrificial pile as a candidate for county
clerk. Not that Mr. Wulfert regarded it in
that light, but such was the opinion of the
community. He was defeated in the conven-
tion the first time, but lost by a small major-
ity. At the election in 1910 he won by a
large ma.iority and he has held the office of
county clerk with credit to himself and the
party. It is needless to say that the opposi-
tion he overcame was severe.
Mr. Wulfert was chief office man in the
offices of the Doe Run Lead Company at Flat
River under Superintend 0. M. Bilharz and
Captain J. A. Perry. In the year 1905 Mr.
Charles Clardy became Mr. Wulfert 's as-
sistant and when he left the office the crew
consisted of seventeen men. He is a climber,
as has been manifested in many ways. For
instance, he started as time-keeper of the Doe
Run Lead Company and when he left he had
become paymaster and purchasing agent, this
fine result being obtained through the legiti-
mate channels of perseverance and hard work.
He wins the confidence of those with whom
he comes into contact and it was his popular-
ity with the men of the mines which elected
him to his present office. In 1902 he became
one of the trail blazers for the establishment
of the St. Joe Lead Company Mill, upon
whose site the town of Leadwood now stands.
This was the first modern mill in the county.
Mr. Wulfert joined the Benedicts when on
December 4, 1901, he was united in marriage
to Miss Julia Grandy. Mrs. Wulfert is a
daughter of John Grandy, of Iron IMountain,
foreman of carpentry in the mines. To the
union of the subject and his admirable wife
have been born six children, as follows:
Perry (deceased), Viola, Harold, Rodney,
Julius and Dorothy.
Mr. Wulfert is an advocate of the princi-
ples of moral and social justice and brotherly
love as set forth by the Masonic order, and
he is also a valued member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of
Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America
and the Order of Railroad Telegraphers.
Louis Willum Lix. The postmaster of
Lixville is the tenth or last of the ten chil-
dren of Henry and Mary Lix, natives of Ger-
many. They both came to America when
young, settled in this county and remained
here until the end of their lives. The eldest
son of the family, Henry Lix, did not live to
grow up, but the eighth child was given his
name and lived to bear it. The other chil-
dren were christened August, Christian,
Louis, Nancy, Catherine, Louise, Minnie and
Caroline.
Louis Lix was born November 8, 1868. He
has lived all his life on the farm where he
was born, which he inherited at his father's
death. Both parents died in 1900 ; he at the
age of seventy-three, and she at sixty-four.
In 1903 Louis Lix bought his mercantile busi-
ness. He deals in general produce and has
extensive holdings in real estate, two hundred
and twenty five acres in Bollinger county
and fiftv-four in Perrv county, besides lots in
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
871
Lixville, of wliieli the total area is seven
acres.
Mr. Lix was appointed postmaster in Maj',
1905, and has served ever since that time. He
is a Republican in his political creed, as so
many of the Americans of German descent
are.
On February 10, 1895, occurred the mar-
riage of Louis Lix and Rosetta, daughter of
David Barks. Six children -n-ere born of this
union: August W., October 28, 1895; John
Robert, October 12, 1897, deceased; Bertha
Ethel, April 5, 1900; Esther Ella, March 3,
1903; Effie May, November 3, 1905; and
Mary Alice, July 11, 1909. The family are
members of the Lutheran church.
Ross Blake, an energetic, able and hon-
ored citizen of Leadwood, has also the good
fortune to be blessed with a strong, brave
and fine father. Both have made splendid
records in the railroad and mining fields of
southeast Missouri, the younger man being
at the present time superintendent of the
large lead mine and mill at the point men-
tioned. H. A. Blake, the father, was born at
Newark, Ohio, on the 2nd of November, 1846 ;
received a fair education in his boyhood and
spent the bulk of his youth in the Civil war,
wearer of the blue and an honor to it. After-
ward he taugTit school ; advanced in that field
to the superintendency of schools of Mont-
gomery county, ^Missouri, and finally com-
pleted a course in civil engineering. While
thus engaged for a cjuarter of a century he
was identified with the Missouri Pacific, Kan-
sas City & Pittsburg and ilississippi River
& Bonne Terre Railroads. The elder man
and father has earned the partial retirement
which he is now enjoying at the home of his
son in Leadwood. By his marriage to Melissa
Carter he became the father of two sons, Carl
and Ross. Both he and his wife are well
known members of the Baptist church, and
he himself is one of the old IMasons of the
locality, to whom the compass and square
have a high moral and religious significance.
Ross Blake was born at Nevada, southeast
Missouri, on Christmas day of 1879. After
receiving his early education in the public
schools of Sedalia and completing his studies
under the tutelage of his father, he entered
the employ of the IMissouri Pacific Railroad
in connection with its engineering corps, and
continued in the same line of work with the
Iron ^Mountain and Kansas City. Pittsburg &
Gulf Railroads. He has always taken a deep
interest and has attained prominence in the
military matters of the state, and during the
Spanish-American war was a non-commis-
sioned officer of Company D, of the Missouri
Volunteers. At the conclusion of the war he
became connected with the engineering de-
partment of the Mississippi River & Bonne
Terre Railway, but in 1904 located at Lead-
wood to take charge of the four mines and
mill at Leadwood, property of the St. Joseph
Lead Company, under the direction of 'Sir. 0.
M. Belharz, the responsibilities of which posi-
tion he still ably carries. He is a Republican
in polities ; a Congregationalist in his church
connections: and, like his father and other
members of his family, a member of the time-
honored Masonry and a firm believer in its
benefits, both practical and moral. Married
to Miss Frances Jennetta Sargent, of Bonne
Terre, in 1904, Ross Blake is the father of
one child, Virginia.
Timothy F. Kinsolving. The prosperous
grocery establishment of T. F. Kinsolving
Company at Hornersville represents the en-
terprise of one of the most progressive citi-
zens of the town, one who has always relied
on his own industry for advancement, and by
successive years of labor and good manage-
ment has been able to secure an independent
place in the business affairs of his commu-
nity.
Mr. Kinsolving is a member of a family
well known in Dunklin county. He was born
on a farm in Kentucky in 1869, and had few
school advantages. Wlien he was twelve
years old the family came to Dunklin county,
near Maiden, living there three years, and
then to Howell county, where he lived twelve
years and employed himself at farm work.
When he was twenty-seven years old he mar-
ried Miss Bertha Yakley, who was born in
Indiana in 1879. Soon after his marriage,
in 1898, he came to Hornersville and began
farming. For six years he was in the livery
and blacksmith business in this town, his as-
sociate in the livery business part of the time
being his brother Tom, under the firm name
of Kinsolving Brothers. In 1909 he started
the business of T. F. Kinsolving Company,
and since then his trade has increased
rapidly, and as a merchant he is considered
one of the most substantial in Horners\'ille.
He owns his town home, and has acquired a
start on the road to fortune. Fraternally he
is a member of the Woodmen of the World
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST :\nSSOURI
at Hornersville and the Knights of Pythias
at Cardwell. In politics he is a Democrat.
He and his wiie have one child, Eainbridge,
who was born in 1897.
^Ir. Kinsolving"s parents were natives of
the state of Virginia, whence they were
hronght to Kentuckv' as children. His
mother died in 1897, while on a visit in Hor-
nersville. His father is now living with his
son Thomas in Hornersville. The children
of the parents were: Thomas (see sketch) ;
Floyd, a doctor of Hornersville; Wilbur, a
butcher in Hornersville ; Leam, in Dunwick,
IMissouri ; T. F. ; Bettie, who married Tom
Davis, of Harrisburg, Arkansas; and Eller,
the wife of Sam Lyons, of West Plains, ]\Iis-
WiLLiAM C. Wilkes is one of the coming
attorneys of Carathersville, where he has suc-
cessfully practiced law since 1907, and where
he has the highest record for integrity, no
one being able to east any aspersions on his
character, either in his private life or his
professional capacity. Since his first entry
into the legal field he has set himself each
day to perform those tasks w'hich he could
see, leaving all else to determine itself later.
This simple course of action has bi'ought him
more business than he can handle, but what
is worth far more it has brought him the con-
tentment which comes with the knowledge
of having done his best. His fellow citizens
say of him that he is one of the few honest
lawj'ers in the county.
Mr. Wilkes' birth occurred August 17,
1885, at Caruthersville, Missouri. He is a
son of George L. Wilkes, who was born in
Henderson county, Kentucky', on the 23rd
day of October, 1856. His education was ob-
tained in the public schools of Pemiscot
county. ^Missouri, and later he engaged in the
occupation of farming. In the year 1879 he
married Miss ilargaret Burris, who came
from Washington, Indiana, where her par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. John Burris, resided. To
this union of Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes ten chil-
dren were born, and of this number William
C. is the fourth in order of birth.
William C. Wilkes has spent practically
his entire life in Caruthersville. He went
through its grammar school, then entered
the high school, from which he was graduated
in the class of 1904, then matriculated in the
University of Missouri and in 1907 was a
graduate from the law department of that in-
stitution. He returned to Caruthersville and
practiced alone for one year. In 1909 he
entered into partnerehip with Judge Gossom,
the prosecuting attorney of Pemiscot county,
while Mr. Wilkes is the assistant prosecuting
attornej'. The union of these two men is a
very strong one, as each is able to bring into
the firm diflierent necessary elements of suc-
cess. The learned Judge can furnish the
experience, while Mv. Wilkes has the en-
thusiasm and optimism of youth.
Mr. Wilkes is a member of the National
Guards of Missouri; he enlisted in 1903,
while in his junior year in high school, in
Company I of the Sixth Batallion, and dur-
ing his university course he was in the col-
lege militarj' department. He is now ad-
vanced to the rank of captain and adjutant
of the Sixth Regiment, is on the staff under
Colonel Oliver, and is greatly interested in
military doings. It is natural that Mr.
Wilkes should have a large circle of ac-
quaintances in Caruthersville, and the fact
that he stands high in their estimation is
ample proof of his sterling worth, since they
have every reason to appraise him at his true
value.
William Bernard Fleege, druggist of
Desloge and closely identified with the busi-
ness interests of the town, was born in Me-
nominee, Illinois, July 6, 1881. His father,
Herman Fleege, was also a native of Illinois.
Early in his career he migrated to Iowa with
a mule team, but later returned to Illinois
and began a successful career as farmer. He
now owns one of the largest stock farms in
Illinois. He married, in June. 1875. ]Miss
]Margaret Hargraphen, daughter of Bernard
Hargraphen, a farmer of Illinois. There
were eight children by this marriage. Wil-
liam B. being the third. The parents were
members of the Catholic church.
William B. Fleege received his early edu-
cation in the public schools of IMenominee.
Later he entered the school of pharmacy at
Des iloiues, Iowa, and was graduated in
1906, ecjuipped for the business of life. At
Dubuque and St. Louis he was employed as
registered pharmacist for several yeai-s. and
in July, 1910, came to Desloge and bouiiht an
interest in the drug business which has since
been successfully conducted by him. Among
his business experiences he was one year a
dining car conductor on the Wabash rail-
road. He is a member of tlie Catholic
church.
In October. 1907. Mr. Fleege married ]\Iiss
.V. JxSy\yi^\yi<Myy-d.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOrRI
873
Dora Kelluer. They have two children.
Urban and Donald.
J. V. Slixkard. living a retired life at
^larble Hill, c-an sit back comfortably in his
chair and contemplate the changes that have
taken place in his career since he first
launched out for himself, a lad of fifteen. The
men of his acquaintance are so accustomed
to thinking of him as being awaj* up at the
top that they almost forget he was not born
that way, but as a matter of fact he made a
very modest beginning. It is one of the laws
of nature that we fall into or climb up to
close-fitting positions in the activities of life,
according to our varying sizes and values,
and thus it has been in the ease of ilr. Slink-
ard, born to lead and therefore unable to be
kept in the ranks.
J. V. Slinkard is a native of ilissouri, born
ilarch 21, 1839, in Cape Girardeau county.
He is the son of Daniel and Eva (Helder-
man) Slinkard, the father a native of North
Carolina. Daniel Slinkard, when a young
man, moved to Cape Girardeau county, Mis-
souri, there married, buried his wife, mar-
ried again and became the father of eight
children. He died in 1838, shortly before
his youngest child was born. IMrs. Daniel
Slinkard was a widow before she married the
father of the subject of this biography; her
first husband was James Morrison, by whom
she became the mother of several children.
By her three marriages she was the mother
of fourteen children. After the death of her
second husband, Daniel Slinkard, she was
married a third time, to ilr. Miles Doyle.
J. V. Slinkard was the little babe who had
not yet arrived in the world when his father
died, so that he never knew the affectionate
care which a father delights to bestow- on his
children ; he had, however, a step-father who
assisted the mother to rear her family and
in whose home the lad resided until he was
fifteen years old. At that age, having al-
ready learned how to do all kinds of farm
work, he left school and started to make his
own way in the world by hauling gravel for
the Jackson turnpike. This work was fol-
lowed by day labor in a brick yard, and
after a short time the youth, unused to the
stead.y manual labor which was reciuired of
him, was taken sick and forced to return
home. The experience taught him that he
would do well to fit himself for some other
kind of work, and he went back to school
while living in the house of his half-brother.
T. J. 0. jMorrison. He made such good use
of his opportunities that at the age of eigh-
teen he was adjudged competent to become a
teacher, was appointed to a school, in which
he taught for five terms, and then remained
three terms in another district. While he
was thus engaged in his work as an educator
the war cloud, which had long been casting
threatening shadows over the land, burst and
discharged its contents. The young teacher,
full of enthusiasm for the cause which he
considered just, and with the desire for ad-
venture so characteristic of youth, enlisted
in the Missouri State Guards, imder Colonel
Jeff. Thompson. His company, however, was
not destined to see very many months of
fighting; sickness broke out in the ranks and
the members of the company who had marched
forth with such brave hearts in the month
of September were brought back in Decem-
ber, sick and discouraged. In addition to the
fever which had stricken down Mr. Slinkard,
in common with his companions at arms, he
was wounded in the jaw and other parts of
the face during the battle of Fredericktown,
and to this day the marks appear as a wit-
ness of his heroism during those terrible
months of suffering. His health, never very
robust, did not return to him, as he had
hoped, and he went to a mountain resort in
the eastern part of Tennessee, where he re-
mained for several j-eai-s. It was not until
the month of February, 1869, eight years
after he left the army, that he was fully re-
covered from the hardships of his military
experiences, but no sooner did he feel himself
a well man again that he continued his long-
interrupted career, but with changed course.
He now went into the general merchandise
business at Zalma (then Bollinger's Mill), in
partnership with Daniel Bollinger. By the
month of December, 1870, he had satisfied
himself that if he would continue to keep
the health which had been recovered with
such difficulty he must live an outdoor life,
whereupon he disposed of his interest in the
store, bought a farm within ten miles of
Zalma, and there he farmed until 1884. At
that time the mercantile life again offered
attractions to him; he went back to his old
store in Zalma, in partnei-ship with "W. A.
^IcMinn, and since the retirement of that
gentleman in the .vear 1889, Mr. Slinkard has
been the sole proprietor of the business.
It must not be thought that Mr. Slinkard
devotes all of his time to his store ; on the
other hand, he has no active connection with
374
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
it, although he retains his interest in the
business. He has become very well known
in and around Zalma, and to Imow him is to
appreciate his stei'ling qualities. As a mark
of this appreciation which his fellow citizens
feel, they elected him to the office of county
treasui-er on the Democratic ticket, and he
served in this capacity from the fall of 1902
until 1904. When the Bank of Zalma was
established, in 1905, Mr. Stinkard was its
tirst cashier and served three and one half
years, and, although now retired from that
office, he still owns stock in the bank. He
owns the property on which his store stands
and has a half interest in the hardware store
in Zalma. Although not connected with ac-
tive farming operations, Mr. Stinkard is, as
a matter of fact, the owner of two farms, — a
forty acre tract of land near Zalma, and all
cleared, east of the town and a half inter-
est in a large two hundred and forty acre
farm near Sturdivant, one hundred and
twenty acres of which are cleared. Prom-
inent as Mr. Slinkard is in Zalma, he is no
less well and favorabl.y known in ]\Iarble
Hill, where he owns five blocks of land and
one lot, on which is built his beautiful resi-
dence. He owns stock in the Advance Tele-
phone Company of Marble Hill and in the
Public Life Insurance Company at Kansas
City, Missouri, and also has stock in the Bank
of Marble Hill.
Mr. Slinkard has been thrice married. In
1870, just at the time when he commenced his
mercantile operations, he married Miss Sarah
J. Hopkins, of Wayne county. She died in
1877, having borne him four children, two
of whom are living now : Leota, born in 1870,
is Mrs. Charles King and resides at Zalma,
Missouri ; Leo, born in 1873, lives at Zalma,
where he has the active management of his
father's store. In 1887 Mr. Slinkard mar-
ried Miss Lizzie Shetley, of Madison county,
^Missouri, and became the father of two chil-
dren, one of whom, Hiram, born in April,
1890, is now living. In 1890 the second :\Irs.
Slinkard died and two years later the twice-
bereaved man was united to Miss Anna Hen-
lev, who became the mother of Clarence, bom
in the fall of the year 1892.
It would be difficult to find a man with
more wide-spread interests than ilr. Slinkard.
In addition to those already mentioned he is
affiliated with the Masonic order, his direct
membership being %vith the Blue Lodge, No.
140, Ancient Free and Accepted ^Masons of
Iilarble Hill. He joined first in 1881, at
Greenville, Missouri. For years he has been
one of the pillars of the Baptist church at
Zalma, his interest still keen, but perhaps the
enterprise towards which he is most closely
drawn is the Will Mayfield College at Mar-
ble Hill, of which institution he has been
the treasurer for several terms, and he has
been a stanch supporter of the college for
a much longer period. Alert to aid in any
movement which has for its end the better-
ment of the communitj', educational etforts
seem to him of all others the most deserving
of his aid.
William JI. Matkix, ex-county judge and
assessor of Madison county, Missouri, is one
of the well-known and representative farmers
in the county, where he has resided for more
than forty years. Since he first engaged in
agricultural pursuits the status of the farmer
has undergone a radical change. A farm
and a mortgage used at one time to be
synonymous terms, and a man burdened with
debt is not apt to be beautiful either in looks
or disposition. Now all of this has been
changed and "back to the farm" means a re-
turn to efficiency, health and life; we reach
the farm by going forward, not by going back-
ward. The business of the farmer who pro-
duces food must be regarded as a fine art.
Much of this changed condition has come
about within the recollection of Judge Mat-
kin, and it is due to the work and example
of such as he that ideas on this subject have
so completelj' changed.
Beginning life December 19, 1844, judge
Matkin made his first appearance into the
world on a farm in ]\Iadison county. He is
a son of LeRoy and Rebecca (Polk) Matkin.
The father was born in St. Francois county,
Missouri, where he spent his boyhood and
early manhood, and he then moved to Mad-
ison coiuity, there manned, and there and in
Iron county his twelve children were born,
eight sons and four daughters, of which
number six remain : C. A., a resident of Iron
county; J. LeRoy, maintaining his home in
Madison county; William M., the subject of
this sketch ; Ben F., who lives in Iron county ;
Ira, residing at Montgomery. Louisiana ; and
Mary A., widow of Randall Dunn, of
Grandin, Missouri. The other brothers and
sisters all died young. LeRoy Matkin, father
of this family, was a man of intellect, being
a prominent educator of his day; he tmight
in subscription schools. He was deeply in-
terested in all matters of public concern and
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
875
in recognition of his great abilities and ster-
ling qualities of character he was elected by
his fellow citizens to the office of judge of
Iron county and he was also deputy assessor
of the county. He was for j^ears a member
of the United Baptist church, in which he
was an active worker. His demise occurred
in his sixty-first year, in 1882, in Iron
county, Missouri, and his wife was summoned
to her last rest in the year 1897. She was a
sister of Captain Charles K. Polk, whose his-
tory appears on other pages of this book.
Grandfather Matkin came to Missouri early
in the nineteenth century and located on
Indian Creek, St. Francois county, near Bis-
marck. His death was caused by a tree fall-
ing on him, which crushed him. He had
three sons. — LeRoy, above mentioned ; Wil-
liam D., who resided on the old homestead
until his death ; and Ben, who also resided
in St. Francois county and died some years
ago.
"VVlien "William M. Matkin was a mere lad
he accompanied his parents to Iron county,
and received his educational training in the
common schools of the district. At the in-
ception of the Civil war he enlisted in the
company of his uncle. Captain C. K. Polk,
and served with him throughout the war,
until the young man was taken prisoner at
Fort Scott and was incarcerated at Fort
Alton. Illinois, until the close of the war,
when he was paroled. Although engaged in
the thick of the conflict in many closel.v-con-
tested battles, he was never seriously
wounded. On leaving the army he resided
in the home of his uncle, who had been pro-
moted to the rank of ma.ior, as a result of
his braver.v and heroism. "William Matkin
engaged in farming and still owns the two
hundred and eighteen acre farm which has
been his home for over forty years. He is
the second owner from the government, and
during the years which have elapsed since
his purchase of the place he has greatly im-
proved it.
In 1870 Mr. Matkin married ^liss Julia F.
Kaufmann. whose birth occurred in St. Louis
on the 12th day of Jauuarv, 1849. She was
a daughter of F. G. Kaufmann, of German
birth, who located in St, Louis, Missouri,
there married a German lady and remained
in that citv for a few years. He then went
to Belleville, Illinois, and later came to Iron
county, Missouri, He was a gunsmith and an
expert general mechanic, with an inventive
turn of mind. He worked in wood and iron
and patented the heading machine for com-
bined header and thresher for wheat, oats,
etc. His shop was located some fourteen
miles southeast of Ironton, and there he suc-
ceeded in making a good living, so that he
was able to give his children the advantages
of a liberal education. His daughter Julia
was well educated in both English and
German. She lived in happy companionship
with her husband for a period of forty-one
years, and on September 18, 1910, she was
summoned to her last rest, at the age of sixty-
one. Of the eight children who were born to
this worthy couple, five are living, — Rev. "W.
L. H., a minister in the General Baptist
church, now residing with his father and
operating the farm, where also his wife (Miss
Emeline Arnett before her marriage), and
four children make their home; Bertha, wife
of Charles H. Griffin, residing near the old
homestead in j\Iadison county; Cora M,, who
is married to Mr. Elwood Tual. a merchant
at Ai-cadia, in the firm of Tual Brothers, and
who has three children; iirs, Thomas D.
Jones, a sketch of whose husband appears on
other pages of this history; and Pearl, a tal-
ented young lady who lives with her father.
Miss Pearl is a teacher and is especially
gifted in drawing and painting.
Ip the year 1876 "W. IM. Matkin was first
elected on the Democratic ticket to the high
office of county .judge and in 1882 he became
the county assessor. In 1890 was again
elected countv .judge, serving another two-
year term. His terms of service were char-
acterized by the same uprightness which have
marked his acts in every relation of life. In
a religious way the Judge and his wife were
for years members of the United Baptist
church, and Judge Matkin still retains his
active membership. His fraternal affiliation
is with the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows at Ironton. The Judge can sit back in
his chair in pleasing- contemnlation of the re-
sults of his years of successfiil efforts for his
familv and for his fellow citizens, and he may
feel that he has earned the approbation and
reg-ard which is accorded him.
Drew "\^ardell. In all respects a worthy
reiiresentative of the industrious, capable
and intelligent citizenship of Dunklin
county. Drew Vardell, of Kennett, is render-
ing most acceptable service as reeorrler of
deeds, and takes pleasure in doing what he
can to advance tlie interests of town and
county, A son of B. X. Yardell, he was born
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
April 18, 1883, in Dunklin county, i\Iissouri,
near Hornersville, where he was reared and
educated.
Born in Tennessee, near Nashville, B. N.
Vardell became thoroughly acquainted with
the various branches of agriculture when
3'oung, and chose for his life work the inde-
pendent occupation of a farmer. Coming to
Dunklin county, Missouri, in 1874;, he bought
a tract of wild land near Hornersville, and on
the farm which he redeemed from its prime-
val condition has since carried on mixed
husbandry with exceptionally good results.
He married Elmira Horner, a daughter of
Elijah Horner, who was one of the founders
of Hornersville and for many years one of
the leading men of this part of the state.
Drew Vardell attended the district schools
when young, there acquiring ample education
to fit him for a good position in the ranks of
the world's workers. He continued to reside
beneath the parental roof-tree until after his
election, in the fall of 1910, as recorder of
deeds, being the regular Democratic nominee
for the office. Taking his office on January
1, 1911, ]\Ir. Vardell has performed the duties
devolving upon him in the capacity with
credit to himself and to the satisfaction of
the people concerned.
Mr. Vardell married, Jlay 9. 1905, Nora
Williams, who was born near Hornersville,
Dunklin county, a daughter of the late
"Uncle" Dan Williams, and their pleasant
home has been made more bright by the birth
of one child, a daughter named Lile Estella.
]\Irs. Vardell is a most estimable woman, and
a faithful member of the Methodist Episco-
pal church. Fraternally ilr. Vardell belongs
to Carnation Court, No. 7, Tribe of Ben Hur.
Simon Girty Nipper. One of Washington
county's foremost young attorneys is Simon
Girty Nipper. He possesses excellent profes-
sional attainments and has already "given a
taste of his qaulity" in public office, having
for several years been prosecuting attorney,
an office he resigned to accept the appoint-
ment by President Taft as census supervisor
of the Eleventh Missouri district. He is one
of the most loyal and enthusiastic of Repub-
licans, being ever ready to do anvthing, to
go anywhere in support of the cause. He is
a splendid campaigner and is widely noted
for his eloquence, which readily brings con-
viction to his auditors.
Simon Girty Nipper was born March 1,
1882. in Washington countv, as was also his
father, James A. Nipper, whose birthdate
was April 11, 1856. The elder gentleman
worked around the sawmills and upon farms
in his youth and received his education in the
country schools, supplementing this with
much reading, of which he was very fond.
He was married, March 31, 1880, to Amanda
Martin, of Washington county, and their
union was blessed by the birth of six children,
namely : Emily, deceased ; Simon G. ; Fronia,
now Mrs. W. T. Dougherty; Oma, now Mrs.
W. C. Huitt; Grace, deceased; and James
William. After his marriage ]\Ir. Nipper,
the father, took up farming and he also was
well known as a Baptist preacher. He is
now engaged in preaching in various country
churches of that denomination in Washing-
ton and Crawford counties. ]Mrs. Nipper
died January 17, 1911, much lamented by
those to whom she was nearest and dearest.
She was a stanch Baptist, a good mother and
loving wife. The father is a Republican in
politics.
Simon G. Nipper was the son of humble
parents and passed his boyhood twenty-five
miles from a railroad. He attended the coun-
try schools four months out of each year and
the rest of the time helped on a farm. At the
age of eighteen years he secured a position as
janitor at the Chillicothe Normal School and
while thus engaged also attended school. It
was not until then that he saw his first rail-
road train. Subsequently he worked in the
mines in Saint Francois county as an under-
ground laborer. With the savings from this
hard work he was enabled to attend the
Steelville Normal School, his father having
removed to Crawford county. Following
this he taught school for four years and dur-
ing the entire period laid siege to his Black-
stone to such good purpose that Pebraary 25,
1905, he was admitted to the bar at Steel-
ville. Missouri, He came to Potosi in the
same year and at once entered upon the prac-
tice of the law, in which he soon gave evi-
dence of signal ability. In 1906 he became a
candidate for prosecuting attorney and in the
race defeated W, A. Cooper. At the ensuing
election he succeeded himself, Charles H.
Richeson being his unsuccessful opponent.
He is extremely active in political matters
and is a standard bearer of the party in
Washington county. He enjoys an excellent
practice and at the same time is very faith-
ful to his official duties. The eleventh district
of ^Missouri, to which the president appointed
him census supervisor, includes the counties
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
877
of St. Louis, Jefferson, "Washington, Iron,
Reynolds, Carter, Wayne, Bollinger, ^ladi-
son. Saint Francois, Perry and Sainte Gene-
vieve. He had the distinction of being the
youngest supervisor in all the state of Mis-
souri. While the census was being taken he
had little time for other matters, but resumed
his practice with its conclusion.
Mr. Nipper has the very unusual record of
ha\ing been a delegate from Crawford
countj' to the state convention at the early
age of twenty years. He has served as chair-
man of the Republican County Committee of
Washington county and as chairman of the
Republican CongTessional Committee of the
Thirteenth district.
On January 25, 1903, Miss Fannie Huitt,
of Crawford county, became the bride of ilr.
Nipper, and their happy marriage has been
blessed by the birth of two sons, Wendell
Ward and Elmer Huitt. Mrs. Nipper is a
daughter of W. H. and Amanda Huitt, and
she and her husband ■ maintain a delightful
and hospitable home.
Van Houston Harrison. M.D. For many
years one of the leading physicians and sur-
geons of Dunklin county, the late Van Hous-
ton Harrison. M. D., of Kennett, not only
gained marked prestige in his profession but
was known far and wide as a progressive and
public-spirited citizen, and as a man whose
life was ever ordered on the highest princi-
ples of honor and integrity. He was born
July 11. 1834, in Sumner county. Tennessee,
where his father. Dr. Jesse Harrison, a
prominent physician, located on going to
Tennessee from Virginia, his native state.
Inheriting a taste for the study of medicine
from his father. Van Houston Harrison took
a course of study in the Memphis Medical
College, and was subsequently graduated
from the ilissouri Medical College, at Saint
Louis, with the degree of M. D. Dr. Har-
rison began the practice of his profession at
Williamsville, New Madrid county, Missouri.
from there moving in 1861 to Clarkton, Dun-
klin county, which was then the best town
south of Cape Girardeau. Very soon after-
ward he enlisted in the Jackson Militia, and
served for a time as surgeon in the Confeder-
ate army. He continued in active practice at
Clarkton until 1893. when he settled at Ken-
nett. where he continued his professional
labors until his death, November 2-1, 1896,
having a large and lucrative patronage. The
Doctor devoted his time and his energies to
his profession, and was an influential mem-
ber of the various town, county and state
medical associations, being considered an au-
thority on the various diseases to which the
human flesh is heir.
Politically Dr, Harrison was a sound Dem-
ocrat, and though never an office seeker did
make one vigorous camjiaign for the state
senatorship, but was defeated at the polls.
Fraternally the Doctor was made a ilason in
early life, and was for years one of the lead-
ing members of Clarkton Lodge, No. 130, A.
F. & A. i\I., which he represented at the Grand
Lodge ; he was likewise a charter member of
West Prairie Chapter, No. 31, R. A. M., the
first chapter organized in this part of the
state. Dr. Harrison was also one of the or-
ganizers of the Clarkton & Hall Educational
Association, which in 1880 erected a four
thousand five hundred dollar building which
was used for public and private schools and
in which lectures were held, its influence be-
ing felt over a wide area. He was an Old
School Presbyterian in religion, and for up-
wards of a ciuarter of a century was an el-
der in the Clarkton Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Harrison married, in Clarkton, Rox-
anna Stokes, who was born at Cape Girar-
deau, Missouri, but was brought up and edu-
cated in Clarkton, where her father. Judge
John H, Stokes, was a .judge in the Court of
Common Pleas. Mrs. Hamson died in Ken-
nett, Missouri, :\Iarch 31, 1906. Ten chil-
dren were born to Dr. and Mrs. Harrison,
namely : Emma, widow of John T. James, late
of Clarkton, Missouri ; A. S. Harrison, M. D.,
of Kennett; 0. S. Harrison, engaged in the
loan and insurance business at Kennett ; P.
C. Harrison, a lumber dealer in Kennett;
Lucretia, who died in infancy; R. E. Har-
rison, who died at the age of twenty-five
years, in 1895, was engaged in mercantile
pursuits at Pascola, Missouri ; Van Houston
Harrison, Jr., a bookkeeper at Kearney, Ar-
kansas; Zalma B. Harrison, an attorney at
Rector, Arkansas: Agnes, wife of Professor
Herbert Pryor, of whom a brief sketch may
be found elsewhere in this volume; and Er-
nest F. Harrison, M. D., of Kennett.
P. P. Bryant. One of the old and pros-
perous residents of Hornersville, Mr. P. P.
Bryant knew this town when it had only one
store. In this vicinity he has spent nearly
forty years of his life, and beginning as a
poor younsr man who had the responsibility
of supporting his widowed mother and one
878
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
sister, he worked a steady progress in his ma-
terial circumstances and for a number of
years has enjoyed a prosperity that fully re-
wards his earlier struggles.
Mr. Brj'ant was born in Decatur county,
Tennessee, September 25, 1855. His father
was a farmer from east Tennessee and during
the war moved to Padueah, Kentucky, where
he died when his son was seven years old.
The latter had few school advantages, largely
owing to the conditions resulting from the
war. In 1874 his mother moved to Dunklin
county, when he was fifteen years old, and
the support of the mother and sister devolved
upon him. His mother lived with him until
a j^ear before her death, which occurred about
1887. For several years he worked on a
farm, and then rented a farm near Horners-
ville, where he made three crops, being in
debt when he went on the place. He then
bought a home and business block in Horners-
ville and for five years was in business there
and did well. Selling out, he was in business
at Campbell two years, then in Noble,
Arkansas, two years, and in 1893 returned to
Hornersville. For two years he drove the
mail to Kennett, and then for twelve years
conducted a prosperous restaurant business
in Hornersville. In 1909 he retired from his
active career, but since then has built a two-
story brick business house, fifty by fifty on
Main street, and two dwelling houses, and
owns thirty acres of valuable land adjoining
town.
Mr. Bryant's first marriage was to Almedia
Harmon, who died two years after marriage.
His second wife, who died while he was in
Noble, Arkansas, was ]\Iiss Nezzie Fisher.
Their three children were: Hattie, Bert (see
sketch), and John. In October, 1902, he
married in Hornersville Mary "Woodruff, who
was born in Indiana, July 24, 1870, and came
to Hornersville with her parents. They have
one child, Cora E., born in 1903.
Mr. Bryant is a Democrat in polities. His
fraternal affiliations are with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of
the "World at Hornersville and the Knights
of Pythias at Paragould.
AuGrsTus Samuel St. IMary, Jr. The last
of the male descendants of the family which
founded St. Mary's, Ste. Genevieve county,
Augustus S. St. Mary, Jr., was for many
years an active and widely known figure in
the mining industries of Southeast Missouri,
especially as an expert builder of smelting
works. He is a native of "Washington county,
Missouri, born February 13, 1838. His
grandfather, also A. S. St. Mary, located at
"Vincennes, Indiana, before the outbreak of
the Revolutionary war, being one of the pio-
neers of that place and one of "Washington's
most trusted couriers during the progress of
hostilities. The father was born in old Vin-
cennes, and at the conclusion of the hostili-
ties with Great Britain his parents started
with their family for their old home in
Canada, "but before they reached their destin-
ation they were stricken with fever and both
died. As the children disagreed as to what
was best to be done under the distressing cir-
cumstances their life-courses were henceforth
separated.
A. S. St. Mary, at this crisis, directed his
course toward St. Louis, arriving in that city
in 1802, soon after the Louisiana Purchase
had been made from France. Then twelve
years of age, he secured employment as a
farm laborer, and received as pay for his
services the piece of ground which is now
the site of St. Joseph's College, St. Louis.
Trading the land for a horse and cart, he
joumej^ed with his new possessions to Ste.
Genevieve, where he worked for awhile and
then exchanged the former for a ferry boat.
This he operated for about thirteen years,
also establishing and running a yard which
supplied the river boats with wood. When
the lead boom struck Washington county, he
moved to that section of the state and engaged
especially in the smelting branch of the lead
industry, and until his death in 1867 was ex-
tensively engaged in building and operating
smelting plants in various parts of Southeast
Missouri. While at the Old Mines he mar-
ried Miss Mary Louise Politte, who died in
1893, mother of three children, — Henry;
Mary Louise (Mrs. Atwood), now deceased
and A. S., Jr., of this sketch. The deceased
was a Catholic and a stanch Democrat.
Augustus Samuel St. Mary. Jr., spent his
early life in receiving a common-school edu-
cation and working in the lead mines. At
the breaking out of the Civil war he was in
his twenty-fourth year, and served in the Con-
federate army as a lieutenant under General
Cockrell. After the war he married, and he
continued to engage in lead mining, farming
and other occupations, coming to Festus,
Jefferson county, as machinist for the Glass
Works. He also operated a construction
camp during the building of the St. Louis &
San Francisco Railroad, and made himself
HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
879
felt in manifold other Avays as a distinct per-
sonal force iu the development of his home
region. He is fully entitled to the retired
life which he is now enjoying at one of the
Festus hotels with a favorite daughter.
Mr. St. Mary was married, in 1866, to Miss
Julian Boursaw, of Rich Woods, Washington
county, and the two children of their union
are Josephine and Margaret Cyrena, both
unmarried. The father of this family is,
therefore, as stated, the last male descendant
of the founders of St. Mary's, Missouri.
James M. Hindman, M. D. The profes-
sional career of Dr. J. M. Hindman excites
the admiration and has won the respect of
his contemporaries, and in a calling in which
one has to gain reputation by merit he has
advanced steadily until he is acknowledged
as the superior of most of the members of
the medical profession in Bollinger county,
Missouri, having long since left the ranks
of the many to stand among the successful
few. Dr. Hindman is engaged in the active
practice of his profession at Dongola, Mis-
souri, where he is a man of mark in all the
relations of life.
In Jay county, Indiana, on the 21st of
December, 1867, occurred the birth of Dr.
Hindman, who is a son of J. ]Monroe and
]\Iary Elizabeth (Lanning) Hindman, both
of whom are now deceased. The father was
a farmer in Bollinger county, Missouri, and
he had achieved a fine success in that partic-
ular line of enterprise. He served as county
judge of the southern district for two years.
He and his wife became the parents of ten
children, of whom the Doctor was the eldest
in order of birth and seven of whom are liv-
ing in 1911. On the old homestead farm in
Indiana Dr. Hindman was reared to adult
age. In 1881 the family home was estab-
lished in Jay county, that state, and there
the Doctor received his preliminary educa-
tional training. In 1883. J. Monroe Hind-
man removed wnth his family to Arkansas,
remaining in that state for a period of twelve
months, at the expiration of which a return
was made to Indiana. In 1885 the family
again set out for Arkansas, but. soiourning
for a time in Bollinger county, ^Missouri,
while en route. Mr. Hindman became so im-
pressed witli the attractions of this place
that he decided to settle here. Accordingly,
he homesteaded a tract of one hundred and
sixty acres of land in Liberty township,
where he resided until his death. Dr. Hind-
man was associated with his father in the
work and management of the farm until
1889. He then farmed for himself until
1898, when he decided upon the medical
profession of his life work and in that year
was matriculated as a student in the St.
Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons,
at St. Louis, ^Missouri, being graduated in
that excellent in.stitution as a member of
the class of 1902 and duly receiving his well
earned degree of Doctor of I\Iedicine.
Dr. Hindman initiated the practice of his
profession at Dongola, Missouri, where he
opened up a drug store and where he has
continued to reside up to the present time.
He rapidly built up a large and lucrative
patronage and to-day holds prestige as one
of the most skilled physicians and surgeons
in Bollinger county. He has continued to
conduct his drug store in connection with
his professional work and the same is w^ell
equipped and strictly modern in all its ap-
pointments. Dr. Hindman is the owner of
some three lots and a beautiful residence in
Dongola, where he is honored and esteemed
by, his fellow citizens and where he is un-
usually loyal and public spirited in his civic
attitude.
In the year 1888 Dr. Hindman was united
in marriage to Miss Emma P. Shell, a native
of Bollinger county, ^Missouri, and a daugh-
ter of Troy Shell, of that place. Dr. and
;Mrs. Hindman have no children. In their
religious faith they are devout members of
the Baptist church, in the different depart-
ments of whose work the.v are most zealous
and active factors. In politics he accords
an uncompromising allegiance to the cause
of the Republican party and in fraternal
channels he is affiliated with the time-hon-
ored Masonic order, the Tribe of Ben Hur
and the Woodmen of the World.
William T. Stevenson. An able expo-
nent of the progressive spirit and strong
initiative ability that have caused Iron
county to forge so rapidly forward commer-
cially and in other lines is William T. Steven-
son, who has done much for the material and
civic development and upbuilding of the at-
tractive town in which he has elected to
establish his home. ]Mr. Stevenson is a man
of great and diverse activity. He is engaged
in the general merchandise business at Des
Arc: he is a member of the firm of William
Stevenson & Brothers, who conduct a general
store at Scatterville, Wavne county ; he owns
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
the Des Are Telephone Company, and in fact
is one of the most prominent telephone men
in this part of the state; he is vice-president
of the Bank of Des Are and former president
of this sound monetar}' institution: and he
has given excellent service in public office.
It is by no means to be gainsaid that he is
one of the big men of Iron county. He built
the Des Arc telephone system and he has Bell
and other long distance phones connected
locally in five counties and extending to Wil-
liamsville. Marquard, Lesterville, Ellington
and all towns in that area. In addition to
the enterprises above noted which benefit by
his controlling ability he is also in the lumber
and milling business. For twa terms he has
been elected one of the three county judges
of Iron county and he is serving in that
capacity at the present time.
]Mr. Stevenson was born upon the farm
where he now makes his residence on January
21, 1865, and is the son of J. W. and Ellen
(Shaver) Stevenson, the latter of whom is
living at Des Arc at the age of sixty-four
3'ears. She was born and reared in ]Madison
county, JMissouri, her parents having been
pioneers to Missouri in the earlier part of the
nineteenth centurv. and who took a part in
the life of the country in an agricultural ca-
pacity. The father was born in Iron county ;
was reared near the site of Des Arc ; was a
farmer; and served as a soldier in the Civil
war. aiore is told of him in succeeding para-
graphs. He and his wife became the parents
of a round dozen of children, ten of whom
were sons and two daughters, and of this
number but one is deceased, the eldest, Perlie,
who married Napoleon Lewis and died a .vear
later, in 1898. The subject is the eldest of
those living; David F., of Taskee, Missouri,
is engaged in merchandising and farming;
John H. resides at Des Arc and is interested
in merchandising and real estate, owning a
large number of houses in this place; Robert
H. is a merchant of Des Arc ; James W., of
near Corydon, Re.vnolds county, owns and
operates two saw mills; Ollie D. is the owner
of a saw mill near Lesterville. ^Missouri;
Charles C. is a partner of his brother, the sub-
ject, in the mercantile business; Ozro and
Cicero, twins, are engaged in the tie and
lumber business together ; ilarshall resides at
home with his widowed mother; Bertha, now
Mrs. Zell Lewis, resides at Pangborn. Arkan-
sas, where her husband owns a sawmill and
is engaged in tlie lumber business. It is an
interesting coincidence that all the brothers
are to more or less extent engaged in the lum-
ber business and that all were rfeared upon
the homestead farm a mile and a half north
of the present town of Des Are.
ilr. Stevenson received his general educa-
tion in the district schools and remained at
home until the attainment of his majority.
His first experience as a wage-earner was as
a book-keeper in a saw-mill. As early as 1886
he realized his ambitions of placing himself
upon an independent footing and started in
business for himself. He subsequently
formed a partnership with his brother, John
H., and these two gentlemen still retain some
associate interests. In 1905 Charles C.
Stevenson entered into partnership with his
brother and at the present time he manages
jointly with the subject the mill, the store at
Des Arc and a farm south of town. The other
interests of the subjects are individual.
ilr. Stevenson was first married to ]\Iiss
ilollie Chilton, who died August 29, 1902,
the mother of four daughters, Eva, Ethel,
Lena and Lela, all of whom are at home. The
subject was married in the year 1904 to ]\liss
Rhoda King,, daughter of the late Samuel
King. This honored and venerable citizen
died in ]\Iay, 1911, when nearly eighty years
of age.
Politicall.y William T. Stevenson is a
stanch and stalwart Democrat, as are all his
brothers. In speaking of his public service
mention should be made of his four years of
office as deputy with Sheriff M. T. O'Neal.
He is a member of the Jlodern "Woodmen of
America of Des Arc and he and his family
favor the Baptist church.
The late J. Wesle.y Stevenson, father of the
subject, was summoned to the Great Beyond
on January 20, 1910, at his home near Des
Arc, the very farm upon which he was born
November 13, 1842. He is a son of Hender-
son C. and Angeline (J\IcFadden) Stevenson,
who came to Missouri from Kentucky and
Virginia, respectively. Angeline McFad-
den's parents were Samuel and Lucy
ilcFadden, early pioneers of this section of
Missouri. The family all were farmers and
none of the name of JIcFadden now reside
in this section.
J. Wesley Stevenson, himself the father of
twelve children, was one of a family of ten,
and of that number only three survive at the
present time, namel.y: Mrs. Lucinda Shaver.
)f near Des Arc ; Mrs. Annie Lloyd, of near
Des Arc ; and James A., of Iron county.
'Sir. Stevenson was one of those who paid
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
881
Iron county the L-oinpliiueut of remaiuing
within its favored boundaries throughout the
entire course of his life. He was a farmer
and stockman, in particular raising great
uundoers of horses and furnishing teams for
the lumber business. He was Democrat in
his political conviction, ever giving heart and
hand to the partj^'s causes.
ilr. Stevenson was married May 8, 1864,
to iliss Ellen Shaver, born in 1848, in ^Mad-
ison county, ilissouri, on the Saint Francois
river. This worthy lady is now residing at
Des Arc. She is a daughter of David "\V. and
]\Iary (Ramsey) Shaver, they having been
married in Illinois. The mother died when
she was an infant — about 1850 — and the
father survived for more than a score of
years, his demise taking place in 1872. He
was latterly in the mercantile business at Des
Arc and when the railway was built through
which brought the town into being he sold
the lots upon which the town was built. Mrs.
Ellen Stevenson was one of a family of four
children, and of these, besides herself, one
brother, John Shaver, is living at Des Arc.
J. Wesley Stevenson was a soldier in the
Civil war. serving in Company H, Forty-
seventh Missouri Regiment. The military
work of this organization for the most part
was in the state, but toward the close of the
war he was in the United States service in
Tennessee. Altogether, he wore the uniform
of the Union army over three years and was
honorably discharged at the end of the great
conflict. It is indeed remarkable that all the
ten sons of this fine man are still living and
in business, nearly all near the old home, and
the name of Stevenson is one which enjoys
high regard in Iron county. The Stevenson
brothers are engaged in lumber manufactur-
ing, mercantile business and farming and to-
gether they operate three thousand acres of
land. All are prominent and successful busi-
ness men and all are sound, law-abiding-
citizens, none of the ten ever having been ar-
rested. All are married with the exception
of the youngest son. ilarshall. who resides
with his widowed mother. There are thirt.v-
one grandchildren.
AViLLiAJi C. Stokes. A citizen of promi-
nence and influence, widelv known througli-
out Dunklin county. William C. Stokes, of
Kennett. has filled positions of importance to
the public with credit to himself and to the
satisfaction of all. and en.ioys to a high
decree the confidence and esteem of his fel-
low-men. A native of Missouri, he was born
January 10, 1858, in Cape Girardeau, and
at the age of four years was brought by his
parents to Clarkton, Dunklin county, where
he received his elementary education, which
was completed at Westminster College, in
Fulton, Missouri, where he took the literary
course.
Returning to Clarkton, Mr. Stokes clerked
for ten years in the store of his brother, T.
C. Stokes, and was afterwards for four years
engaged in farming, being located four miles
south of that town. The ensuing four years
he was employed in Clarkton, after which he
resided in Maiden, ]\Iissoiiri. for three years,
being first engaged as a clerk and later as a
manufacturer of shingles. Being then elected
deputy circuit clerk and recorder, Mr. Stokes
served in that capacity until January, 1906,
his residence in the meantime being in Ken-
nett. He was subsequently appointed, by
Governor Folk, county recorder to fill an un-
expired term, and being elected to that posi-
tion in 1907 served acceptably to the people
for four consecutive years, performing the
duties of his office ably and faithfully. He
is now busy looking after his landed interests,
which consist of two hundred acres of wild
land, one half of which he has already
cleared. Politically Mr. Stokes is an earnest
supporter of the principles of the Democratic
party.
On June 23, 1881, Mr. Stokes was united
in marriage with Mary T. Hood, and into
their pleasant home two children have made
their advent, namely: Clara, born August 6,
1886; and Lawrence, born November 21, 1894.
Fraternally IMr. Stokes is a member of C.
H. Mason Camp. IModern Woodmen of Amer-
ica, at ilalden; and of Pioneer Lodge, No.
165, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at
Kennett. Religiously the family is affiliated
by membership with the Presbyterian church,
in which he has been an elder the past four
Everett Reeves. A prominent figure in
both the military and legal circles of Caruth-
ersville. Everett Reeves occupies a noteworthy
position in the foremost ranks of the leading
citizens of his community, and is deservedly
popular with his fellow-men and co-workers.
A native of Tennessee, he was born Januarv
17, 1877, in Weakley county, a son of G. W,
and Laura ("Arnold) Reeves.
Having acquired a good education in tlie
public schools. Everett Reeves was variously
882
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
employed imtil after attaining his majority.
In May, 1898, he enlisted as a private in
Troop H, First United States Cavalry, and
after serving faithfully for nine mouths was
mustered out at Fort Meade. South Dakota.
Returning then to his home, he was for some
time a member of the National Guard at
Fulton, Kentucky. Continuing his military
career, Mr. Reeves, in 1907, enlisted as a pri-
vate in Company I, Sixth Infantry. Missouri
National Guard, and has since been three
times promoted, in February, 1911, having
received his commission of captain, of that
company, an important office which he is fill-
ing with the same fidelity and aliility that
characterized his efforts in subordinate posi-
tions.
Soon after his return from the Spanish-
American War Mr. Reeves entered the South-
ern Normal University, at Huntington, Ten-
nessee, and was there graduated in 1900. He
had taught school four years before entering
the University, and then l)egan the study of
law and was admitted to the bar in 1901.
Beginning his professional career, he prac-
ticed law at Fulton. Kentucky, for four
years, and in 1905 located at Caruthersville.
^lissouri, as a partner of R. A. Pierce, of
Tennessee. Three years later, that partner-
ship being dissolved. Mr. Reeves was for two
years in company with N. C. Hawkins. In
the summer of 1911 he became associated with
the well-known legal firm of Shepherd & J\le-
Kay, and has since carried on a large and
lucrative business, his clientele being exten-
sive.
Mr. Reeves married, February 14, 1901,
Erin Pinkley, who was born in Carroll
county, Tennessee, May 11, 1880, and into
their home three children have made their
advent, namelv: Folk Odell, Opal and Ever-
ett, Jr. Politically Mr. Reeves is a firm sup-
porter of the principles of the Democratic
party, and served from May 1. 1908, imtil
May 1. 1910, as city attorney. Fraternally
he is an active member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, in which be has passed
all the chairs; and is also a member of the
Modern Woodmen of America and of the Im-
proved Order of Red Men.
I. F. Donaldson. Worthv of special rep-
resentation in this volume is the late I. F.
Donaldson, one of the strong, brave and
public-spirited men who were active in pro-
moting the upbuilding and growth of Ken-
nett and Dunklin county, and who also
in the pioneer task of opening up
public highways throughout this section of
Dunklin county.
He was born August 31, 18-47, in Gibson
county, Tennessee, and died at West Plains,
]\Iissouri, December 19, 1905, where he had
moved with his family for the benefit of his
health, his death being a cause of general
regret.
He came to Dunklin county with his
father. Captain Humphrey Donaldson, in
1856, locating on Horse Island, the family
being one of the first to settle below Kennett.
He worked for his father until he was thirty
years of age on the farm and as a teamster,
hauling freight from Cottonwood Point and
]\Ialden. In 1878 he went to Maiden and
clerked in a store until 1882. He was a
Democrat, was twice elected as sheriff and
collector, and was also a county judge. After
finishing his term as sheriff and collector he
engaged in general mercantile business. He
was a man of good business ability and judg-
ment, and for many years conductecl his
store on the northwest corner of the Square.
He was affiliated with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, a member of the lodge at Ken-
nett, and was also a member of the Presby-
terian church.
He was married, April 22, 1884, to Miss
Panola Rayburn, daughter of Major W. C.
and M. J. Rayburn, of Clarkton. Of this
union six children were born, two d.ving in
infancy and Thomas F., Davis R., !Madge and
Josie Aileen are all living with their mother
in Kennett.
His son, Thomas F. Donaldson, one of the
younger members of the Dunklin county bar,
was bom in Kennett, March 29, 1886, and
here acquired the rudiments of his education.
Having a special taste and aptitude for legal
work, he entered the law department of the
University of Missouri, from which he was
graduated with the class of 1909, and has
since been successfully engaged in the prac-
tice of his profession at Kennett. Thomas
F. Donaldson is a member of Kennett Lodge,
No. 5.3, A. F. & A. "SI., and also the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, Pioneer Lodge No.
165.
Ch.\rles Alex.vxdeb Young. A prom-
inent and usefiil part in the many-sided life
of Cadet. Missouri, is taken by Charles Alex-
ander Young, whose relations to the commu-
nity are three-fold, being those of a successful
merchant, a small farmer and village post-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI
master. He lias resided here since 1903 and
has from the first manifested those principles
of public-spirited citizenship which have
gained for him the unqualified confidence
and approbation of his fellow townsmen.
]Mr. Young is a native Kentuckian, his birth
having occurred in Bowling Green, that state,
October 7, 1S70. His father, John Young,
was born in 1849, in Greeneastle, Warren
county, Kentucky, and followed farming
throughout the course of his life. He was
married in 1869 to Sarah Elizabeth Hudnell,
of Kentucky, daughter of Joshua Hudnell,
and the subject is their onl.y child. The
father died in 1873, but the mother survived
until 1886. The father was a Democrat in
his political conviction, as were the ma.jority
of the sons of Kentuckv' of his day and the
mother was a consistent Baptist.
Charles A. Young was left fatherless at
the age of three years and was then reared
by an aunt, with whom he lived for some
time, then going to live with the Society of
Shakers at South Union. Kentuckj-. through
whom he received his education. In course
of time he left the Shaker settlement and re-
turned to his mother, who lived at Bowling
Green, and there he attended school for one
year. As the question of making a liveli-
hood was paramount, he worked at various
places on farms in the vicinity of Owensboro,
Kentucky-. He eventually left his native state
and went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he
worked in a grocery store for about three
years. At the end of that time he came to
Missouri and took up a farm in "Washington
county, upon which he remained for about
two j'cars. He made a new departure then
and took up railroading, but he was disabled
and for three years was an invalid, but hap-
pily succeeded in regaining his health.
Mr. Young was married ilarch 2. 1896,
Miss Mary Bouchard, a native daughter of
Cadet, becoming his wife. ilrs. Young's
parents are ilatthew and Sophia Bouchard.
Six promising children have been born into
their home, namely: Leo Barnard, Eufaula
Beatrice, Delia ilay, Sophia Bermetta, Win-
field Benton Thiirston, and Clara Lucille.
Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs.
Young went to St. Louis, where they remained
for eight years, during three years of which
period the head of the house was with the
street railroad company, and following which
he was employed by the Wabash Railroad
Company. In 1903 he came to Cadet and em-
barked in the mercantile business, in wliieh
from the first he has experienced remarkable
success. The growth of his trade has been
such that he has found it expedient to build
a new store building. He has also built him-
self a residence on one of Cadet's loveliest
sites, a height overlooking the valley in which
the town lies. His farm is situated half a
mile from the railway station, and this is
devoted to general agriculture. He was ap-
pointed postmaster August 1, 1909, which
office he now holds. Unlike his father in pol-
itics, :\Ir. Young is a strong Republican and
a leader of the party in his township.
William G. Petty. A man of good finan-
cial and executive ability, William G. Petty,
of Kennett, has achieved success in his busi-
ness career, and in addition to being an ex-
tensive landholder and agriculturist is
connected with two of the more important
organizations of the city, being president of
the Cotton Exchange Bank and of the Petty-
Spencer Hardware Company, a prominent
mercantile firm. A native of Tennessee, he
was born January 25. 1853, in Hickman
county, a son of jMilford M. and Xaney Petty,
natives of Tennessee. After farming in
Hickman county for thirty-five years. Mil-
ford M. Petty moved to Dunklin county,
Missouri, in 1882, and here both he and his
good wife spent their remaining years.
Soon after attaining his majority, William
G. Petty, who had been working 'as a farm
laborer for six years, bought a tract of wild
land in Salem township and began the im-
provement of a homestead. In 1887 he pur-
chased two hundred acres of land lying near
Nesbit, Dunklin county, and this land, with
the one hundred and sixty acres which he had
previously placed under cultivation, is now
one of the most productive and most desir-
able farms of southeastern IMissouri. Mr.
Petty has also invested in other landed prop-
erty, owning between six hundred and seven
hundred acres on Horse Island, near Senath
and near Kennett, too, being advantageously
located. He operates his farms by tenants,
making cotton his main crop.
In 1891 Mr. Petty was elected sheriff of
Dunklin county, and was re-elected at the ex-
piration of his term, serving four consecutive
years in that capacity. In 1899 he embarked
in the hardware and agricultural implement
business with N. N. Rice, for three vears be-
ing junior member of the firm of Rice & Com-
pany. He then bought out his partner, and
the business was incorporated, with a capital
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST illSSOURI
of ten thousand dollars, as the Riggs-Petty
Hardware Company, and continued business
for four years. Buying out Mr. Riggs, he
then became sole proprietor of the business,
which he conducted alone until 1910, when he
sold a half interest in the concern to J. D.
Spence, the name of the tirm being changed
to the Petty-Spence Hardware Company.
This company has about thirty-five thousand
dollars invested, including the building, which
is fifty-two feet by two hundred feet, with a
floor space of ten thousand square feet, and
carries a stock valued at fifteen thousand dol-
lars, while its annual sales amount to between
forty and fifty thousand dollars. The firm's
business has rapidly increased in the past
few years, five or six men being employed to
handle its line of hardware and agricultural
implements, and it now pays good dividends
on the capital invested.
Mr. Petty helped organize the Cotton Ex-
change Bank, of which he has since been
a director, and of which he has been presi-
dent since 1905. The bank has a capital
stock worth thirty thousand dollars, with a
surplus of twenty thousand dollars, while its
deposits and undivided profits amount to
two hundred thousand dollars. Politically
Mr. Petty is affiliated with the Democratic
party, and has served five or more years as a
member of the City Council, at the present
time being a member of the Kennett Board
of Education. He is also a stock-holder and
director in the St. Louis, Kennett and South-
eastern Railroad Company, a railroad run-
ning from Kennett, Missouri, to Piggott,
Arkansas.
Mr. Petty was united in marriage, in
1879, with Amanda B. Herrmann, a daugh-
ter of "William Herrmann, who was a pioneer
settler of Hornersville. Dunklin county, and
for many years operated a cotton gin and
grist mill near Nesbit. in the meantime gain-
ing distinction as the inventor of the first
cotton cleaning attachments used in ginning
cotton. Seven children have been born to
Mr. and IMrs. Petty, namely : Harry, of whom
a brief sketch mav be found on another page
of this volume; Curtis, employed in the store
of the Pettv-Spencer Hardware Company ;
Neel. who died at the age of thirteen years;
Bertie, who lived but ten years; Connie, who
is a bookkeeper for her father; Genie: and
Gilbert.
•T. W. WniTE. M. D. Known as the builder-
up of the thriving village of Holl\'wood and
as one of the largest land-owners in this vicin-
ity, Dr. J. W. White has long been a promi-
nent citizen of Dunklin count}' both in his
profession and in business aft'airs. He laid
the foundation of his fortune as a family
physician for hundreds of the residents in the
vicinity of Senath. An able physician,
kindly and popular, he possessed a remark-
able industry that enabled him to keep up
with the demands of his patients over a ter-
ritory a dozen miles in eveiy direction from
his office, and during the twelve years that he
was located in Senath he was one of the best
known travelers over the country highways,
taking his advice and skill to the benefit of
the sick in the neighborhood. He has been
a resident of Hollywood and since 1907 has
resigned active practice, devoting all his time
and energies to the supervision of his exten-
sive interests.
Dr. Wliite was born May 15. 1863. of well-
to-do farming people near Bloomfield in
Stoddard county, and in the primitive coun-
try schools of his boyhood he acquired a
good common-school education. Until
nearly grown he remained on the home
farm, and then went to Texas and was a
cowboy for several years, getting health
and experience. On his return he came to
Dunklin county and worked for J. M. Doug-
las on a farm until he had earned enough to
take a course in the Cape Girardeau Normal
during 1886-7. For several years he taught
school in Missouri and Texas. Then in 1890
he married Miss Annie Sando, of Zalma,
Bollinger county. The following year he
attended medical school in St. Louis and
then entered the Kentucky School of Medi-
cine at Louisville, where he was graduated
an M. D. in 1893. When he began active
practice he was in debt five himdred dollars
for money that he had borrowed to complete
his education. With a wife and child he
began work vigorously and since the first
year has been practically independent of the
hardships of fortune. After a year's prac-
tice at Lula he located in Senath, when only
a few stores composed the business district
of that town. While busy with his profes-
sion he also did his share toward the im-
provement of that town, building several
good houses, and was also one of the citi-
zens most influential in securing the con-
struction of the railroad through the town
in 1896. In 1898 he interrupted his busy
practice long enough to take a post-gradu-
ate course in medicine at Chicago.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
In 1905 he located at Hollywood and in
1907 gave up practice to engage in mercan-
tile and real estate business. In making
Hollywood a trading center he has done
more than any other individual, and he owns
most of the towTi. His large store building
accommodates a general stock of merchan-
dise which produces an annual trade of
thirty-five thousand dollars. He owns more
good land in this section than any other in-
dividual, with the exception of Senator
WiUiam Hunter, having about nine hundred
acres of farming land, several farms in the
vicinity of Hollywood and one of eighty
acres in Stoddard county. About half of
his land is in cultivation and operated by
tenants. He is also owner of about ten
thousand acres of timber on what is known
as the Hunter Plantation. A stave factory
has contracted to cut the timber, and it is
estimated that seven years will be required
to work up the timber on his land.
Dr. White and family reside in an attract-
ive new home at Hollywood. He is a mem-
ber of the Christian church of this village,
and through his generous contributions and
working interest the church owes its pres-
ent prosperity. Fraternally he is a member
of Senath Lodge, No. 30, of the Masonic
order. Of the six children born to himself
and wife, one died in infancy, and the
others are named as follows: Harry, born
in 1893, now a student in the State Normal;
Pearl, born in 1898; Ruby, born in 1899;
Ralph, born in 1906; and Ernest, born in
1902.
Philip A. Frie. One of the prosperous
farmer citizens near Senath, P. A. Frie has
had a progressive career from small begin-
nings. Born in Hardin county, Tennessee,
April 7, 1867, he was reared on a farm, and
had few opportunities to attend school. His
father was a minister and farmer, the Rev. "W.
G. Frie, who died December 2, 1896, aged
sixty-three years. His widow, formerly Miss
Delia Bone, now resides at Cane Island. Ar-
kansas. Rev. "W. G. Frie was a minister of the
General Baptist church and thus spent his ac-
tive life. As long as he lived his son worked
in his employ. When he was ten years old the
family moved to Perry county, and there he
lived until his marriage, December 20, 1885,
to Miss Alsa Bunch. Mrs. Frie was born in
Perry county, Tennessee, June 5, 1868, daugh-
ter of Rev. G. D. and Mavy (Denton") Bunch,
the former a minister of the General Baptist
church all his life. He died about 1894, but
his widow is still living in Tennessee, at the
age of about seventy years.
From a cousin living in Dunklin county
and also from others information about this
country induced the Frie family to come
to Southeast Missouri. With his wife and his
parents he came by steamboat down the Ten-
nessee and Ohio rivers to Cairo, and thence
via the Cotton Belt to Paragould, and thence
to Caruth, where they all settled and lived
for three years. For several years he was a
renter, and then bought a piece of land near
Cardwell on time. He sold his first eighty
acres, and in 1904 bought his present farm-
stead of eighty acres and has lived there to
the present time, ilost of the land was in
timber when he bought it. Forty acres he
cleared with his own hands, and hy his labors
he has transformed this into one of the valu-
able farms of the neighborhood. He has also
built him a comfortable home. No money has
ever come to him except through his own
work, and he is well deserving of all his pros-
perity.
He and his wife lost one son, Corrie, and
their children living are: Delia, Ella, Nellie
and an adopted boy, Virgil Dalton. Mr.
Frie is a member of the ilasons and Modem
Woodmen at Senath, and in politics is Re-
publican.
H. L. il.vRBURY. Born at Price 's Landing,
Scott county. Missouri, H. L. Marbury, editor
and proprietor of the Pestus News, is still
on the very sunny side of fifty, as the day
of his birth was February 4, 1864. Benjamin
Marbury, his father, born at Mcilinnville,
Tennessee, on the 20th of September, 1840,
was a man of remarkably broad education.
His earlier mental training was in a literary
school at Leavenworth, Tennessee, and he af-
terward studied law, but decided finally in
favor of medicine. Looking to that end, he
completed a course in the medical department
of the Yanderbilt University, Nashville, in
1868. Now a thoroughly qualified M. D., he
located at Tracy City, Tennessee, and became
surgeon of the Sewanee Coal Mine of that
place, as well as a general physician of large
practice. In 1873 he moved to Charleston,
^Mississippi county, of the same state, where
he practiced until his death. November 20,
1875, at the early age of thirty-five years.
Benjamin Marbury, the father, was a sol-
dier under the well known Confederate gener-
al. Braxton Bragg. He was made a prisoner
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
at Franklin, escaped from the boat in which
he was confined, and while a fugitive was
taken to the home of William M. Lusk, a Scott
county farmer who had a pretty daughter,
Rachel Anna : the rest of the story is the old
simple chapter, ever fresh and sweet with
each recurring life of the normal man and
woman — attraction budding into love, and
love blossoming into marriage. The marriage
of Benjamin Jlarbury to Rachel Lusk oc-
curred in ilay, 1862, when both were in their
youthful years, and the three children born
of their union were Horatio L., of this biog-
raphy ; Benjamin H., the well known lawyer
of Farmington, St. Francois county ; and Dr.
Alexander B. Marbury, a dentist at Charles-
ton, Mississippi county.
H. L. Marbury obtained his early educa-
tion in the public schools of Charleston, Mis-
souri, in 1884 entering the Bellview Collegi-
ate Institute of Caledonia and graduating
from its commercial department in 1889.
After working for some time he returned to
that institution and took an advanced course
which brought him the degree of B. S. He
then taught for sevei'al years in Reynolds,
Scott and Washington counties, the last of
his labors in the field of education being
conducted in that last named county, at ilin-
eral Point, in 1891-2.
]Mr. ilarbmy enlisted for service in the
Spanish-American war, joining the Fort
Smith, Arkansas, Infantry Regiment. After
the war he returned to Fort Smith, where he
was mustered out with an honorable record,
and thence went to his home in Caledonia.
Prior to his war experience he had studied
law, and while residing in Arkanass he was
admitted to the bar and practiced in that
state. Subsequently he was connected with
the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company, and par-
tially completed the regular course at the St.
Louis University Law School. Sickness in
the family compelled him to return to Crystal
City, where he again entered the employ of
the" Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. But he
craved something more stimulating and in-
tellectual, and in 190-1 purchased the Festus
Xeics, which he still conducts as a stirring,
solid Democratic newspaper. The News has
a circulation of over a thousand, and, under
"Sir. ]Marbury's good management, is a sub-
stantial and influential journal. Besides
owning his newspaper plant in Festus, he has
considerable real estate in the town, and is
in every way one of its substantial citizens.
He is a leading member of the Methodist
church, being steward in the local organiza-
tion, and is well known as a fraternalist be-
cause of his active connection with the
Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Red-
men.
In 1903 Mr. Marbury wedded iliss Nellie
Gertrude Evens, of Mineral Point, !iIissouri,
and their child, Willard Horatio Marbury, is
now five years of age.
William Carter. One of the most widely
known and progi'essive of the business men of
Piedmont, Wayne county, Missouri, is Wil-
liam Carter, whose activities are directed
along important and diverse lines, including
stock, lumber and banking, while in previ-
ous times he has been interested in the agri-
cultural development of southeastern ilissouri
and has himself been an exponent of the great
basic industry. He is a native son of Wayne
county and is loyal to its institutions as only
one can be to whom a section is endeared by
the associations of a lifetime. The date of
his birth was April 20, 1849, and his parents
were John B. and Cynthia (Wood) Carter.
AVilliam Carter lost his father when Bear-
ing manhood, John B. Carter having passed
on to the "Undiscovered Country" in 1866,
when fort.v-seven years of age, his demise oc-
curring at his home west of Piedmont. He
was born in VanBuren, Carter count}', Mis-
souri, where his father. William, and his
grandfather, Benjamin F. Carter, located iit
the year 1812, they continuing to reside there
until their deaths, except for a few years
spent in Saline county. They were prominent
stock-raisers and farmers. Two of John B.
Carter's brothers, Charles and B. F. Jr.,
served in the Confederate army. The family
were from Virginia, originally, but had re-
sided in Georgia some years previous to com-
ing to Missouri.
William Carter's mother, whose maiden
name was Cynthia Wood, was born in WajTie
county, Missouri, in 1821, and died in 1908,
at the age of eighty-seven years. Her mar-
riage to John B. Carter was celebrated in
Wayne county, which was the scene of almost
her entire life. They were members of the
Baptist church and active in its affairs. Mr.
Carter has a brother and sister living, name-
ly: Charles, a merchant of Piedmont, Mis-
souri ; and Mrs. Isaac Chilton, who resides
near Leeper in Wayne count}', Jlissouri.
The scene of the usefulness of William Car-
ter has been at and near Piedmont and, as
suggested in a preceding paragraph, he is a
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
887
man of various interests, iucludiug farming,
stock raising, lumbering and banking. He
possesses excellent executive abilitj^ and has
made a success of his various enterprises.
Mr. Carter laid the foundation of a happy
married life when, in the year 1S84, he was
united with ]Miss Sarah A. Black, daughter
of Samuel and Mary J. (Jamieson) Black.
The father came to ilis-souri in the early
'30 's of the nineteenth century, making the
journey overland from Virginia, with the
usual attendant hardships of the pioneer trav-
eler. They located on the Saint Francois
river in "\Vaj-ne county. The father was a
farmer and stockman and represented Wayne
county in the legislature prior to the Civil
war. He was a Presbyterian in religious con-
viction. His father, also Samuel, had come
with his children to ^Missouri and he "died
here about one year after their arrival. Mrs.
Carter's father lived to the advanced age of
eighty-seven years, his death occurring in
1896. His wife, whose maiden name was
Mary J. Jamieson. was born in the Old Do-
minion and came to ilissouri as a child with
her parents, Andrew and [Matilda (Parrish)
Jamieson, who engaged in farming and stock-
raising. She was born in 1826 and died in
1896. the year of her husband's death. Her
parents were settlers in Belleview Valley.
They were members of the Methodist Episco-
pal church. South, and enjoyed the respect of
the communit.y. ^Irs. Carter was one of nine
children, all of whom grew to maturity and
seven of whom are living, namely : IMary, wife
of Martin S. Warren, a farmer of Wayne
county, of whom detailed mention is made on
other pages of this work; Mrs. Alice Carter,
residing at San Diego, California ; Samuel A.,
of near Charleston, Illinois ; Andrew, of Pen-
dleton, Oregon ; Sarah A., wife of the subject;
John, a farmer living near Patterson, Mis-
souri; and Mrs. Ella Williams, of Farming-
ton. Two elder brothers, Cyrus and Hous-
ton, went west years ago.
Hon. Arthur Lee Olr'er. Distinguished
not only as a man of broad attainments and
a lawyer of prominence, but for the able
and efficient service which he has rendered
his fellow-men in both houses of the jMissouri
Legislature, Hon. Arthur Lee Oliver, of Caru-
thersville, Pemiscot county, is numbered
among the leading citizens of Southeast ]\Iis-
souri, and it is with pleasure we place before
the readers of this biographical volume a
brief resume of the salient points of his ac-
tive career. He was born January 5, 1879,
in Leeman, Missouri, where his father, the
late Henry Clay Oliver, was born, lived and
died, his birth occurring in ]\Iarch, 1852, and
his death on January 5, 1901. His mother,
whose maiden name was ilary L. Alexander,
was born October 9, 1853, and is now living
at Leeman, ilissouri.
Having completed the eoui-se of study in
the schools of his native town, Arthur Lee
Oliver spent two years at the Carlisle Train-
ing School, in Jackson, ^Missouri, and attend-
ed the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau
for a year. He subsequently taught school
a short time, being quite successful in his
pedagogical work, and then entei-ed the Uni-
versity of Texas, from the law department
of which he was graduated with the class of
1900. Locating in Caruthersville, Missouri,
in August, 1910, Mr. Oliver formed a partner-
ship with C. B. Foris, and they continued in
company until January 1, 1911, when JMr.
Foris was elected circuit judge, the copart-
nei-ship then being dissolved. As a man and
a lawyer Mr. Oliver soon after coming to
Caruthersville won such standing in the com-
munity that he was elected to the office of city
attorney, and served from 1903 until 1905.
He was likewise elected, on the Democratic
ticket, which he invariably supports, as a
member of the board of examiners of the can-
didates for teachers in our public schools. In
1905 JMr. Oliver was chosen as the Demo-
cratic representative to the State Legislature
from Pemiscot county, and in 1909 was elect-
ed State Senator from this, the Twenty-third
District, for a term of four years. He has
been connected with the introduction and
passage of several bills of importance in both
liranehes of the General Assembly. In 1907
he was made chairman of the Judiciary Com-
mittee of the House, and in 1911 was chair-
man of the Judiciary Committee of the Sen-
ate. Mr. Oliver was also chairman of the
Insurance Committee, and of the Judiciary
and Statutory Revision Committee, and from
1909 until 1911 was chairman of both the
Committee on Ditches and the Committee
on Drainage. He is now a member of
the Committee on Appropriations, one of
much importance, and of several smaller
committees, such as the Clerical Force, Munic-
ipal Committee, and the Committee on Priv-
ileges and Elections.
On October 29, 1907, Mr. Oliver was united
in marriage with ilary E. Roberts, who was
born in Caruthersville, Missouri, and they
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
have one child, John R. Oliver, whose birth
occurred August 25, 1910. Fraternally Mr.
Oliver is a member of the Ancient Free and
Accepted Order of ^Masons, belonging to
Caruthersville Lodge, No. 461, at Caruthers-
ville ; of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks; of the Knights of Pythias; and of
the ilodern Woodmen of America. Religious-
ly both air. and Mrs. Oliver are members of
the Presbyterian church, and generous con-
tributors toward its support.
Benjamin Addison McKay. Among the
representative and talented members of the
legal profession of Caruthei-sville, Pemiscot
county, Missouri, is Benjamin Addison Mc-
Kay, of the firm of Sheppard, Reeves & Mc-
Kay, one of the strongest combinations of
legal ability within its pleasant boundaries.
Mr. aicKay is a native son of the county and
belongs to a prominent family, and his father,
John ilcKay, and his brothers, Vergil and
John J. McKay, are mentioned on other pages
of this work. His birth occurred ilay 14,
1871, in the northern part of the county and
his early years, up to the age of fourteen,
were passed upon his father's farm, his seas-
ons of fall and winter being passed in part
behind a desk in the district school room.
Between the age of fourteen and eighteen he
worked as a hired assistant to various
farmers, while at the same time continuing
very diligently his studies. At the age of
eighteen he began teaching in what is
known as the Austin sehoolhouse, on Horse
Island, near Senath. His career as an
instructor there was for two terms, and
following this he matriculated in the normal
school and completed the greater part of the
"C" course. He was very successful as an
instructor, his ability and personality well
fitting him for such work and no doubt a con-
stantly advancing career in this field would
have been his had he chosen to remain in it.
He taught at Cardwell, Dunklin county, for
two years and in 1892 came to Pemiscot coun-
ty, where for a like period he was engaged as
instructor in the school south of Caruthers-
ville. By no means of the type which is con-
tent to let well enough alone, he again entered
the normal school and remained a student
there in 1894 and a part of the year 1895.
Following this refreshment at the "Pierian
spring" he accepted a position in the schools
of Hornersville, Dunklin county, retaining
the same for three years.
At this juncture Mr. McKay made a radi-
cal change by beginning the study of law,
his studies being directed by C. P. Caldwell.
Jn 1897 he was admitted to the bar at Gayoso,
the then county seat of Pemiscot county, his
examination being conducted by Senator
Oliver, of Cape Girardeau; Robert Rutledge,
of New Madrid; Dick Darnell, of Tiptonville,
Tennessee; and J. R. Brewer, of Gayoso, said
examination being before Judge Henry C.
RHey, of Pemiscot county. Shortly after his
admission to the bar Mr. McKay gave very
definite assistance to his brother in his cam-
paign of 1898 for county clerk of Dunklin
county. In course of time he and his bi'other
formed a law firm under the name of McKay
& McKay, in Kenuett. That was in 1898 and
the relationship continued until 1903. On the
first day of January of the year mentioned
Mr. McKay, of this notice, came to Caruthers
ville and practiced here alone until his elec-
tion as prosecuting attorney in 1906, but dur-
ing his term in that office he admitted to
partnership Samuel Corbett, the firm of Mc-
Kay & Corbett existing until 1911. In the
early part of 1911 a new law firm was formed
composed of Sheppard, Reeves & McKay
and of this Mr. I\IcKay is a member at the
present time. It has met with fair fortunes
and to the high prestige which it enjoys Mr
McKay has contributed in no small measure
Mr. McKay gives hand and heart to the
men and measures of the Democratic party
and is of no small influence in local politics.
He is a public spirited citizen and is found in
harmony with all that tends to advance the
welfare of the whole of society. Both he
and his wife are consistent members of the
Methodist Episcopal church.
He whose name inaugurates this sketch
formed a happy life companionship by his
marriage on July 28, 1897, to Lillie A. Mizell,
daughter of Martin L. and Frances Davis
Mizell. Mrs. McKay was born June 28, 1878,
near Hornersville, Dunklin county. They
share their pleasant home with one son, Byron
Addison, born April 13, 1904, in Caruthers-
ville.
Arthur S. Harrison, M. D. Devoting his
time and energies exclusively to the duties
of his profession, Arthur S. Harrison, M. D.,
of Kennett, has built up an extensive and lu-
crative practice, and has won for himself a
prominent and honorable name in the medical
fraternity of Dunklin county. He was born
April 25, 1866, at Clarkton. ilissouri. a son
of the late Van Houston Harrison, M. D.,
^'
^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
for many j-ears one of the most successful
and popular physicians of Kennett, and a
grandson of Dr. Jesse Harrison, who prac-
ticed medicine in Tennessee throughout his
active career. A more extended parental and
ancestral history may be found on another
page of this work, in connection with the
sketch of Dr. Van H. Harrison.
Brought up in an atmosphere of culture
and retinemeut, Arthur S. Harrison natur-
alb' chose a professional career, and at the age
of seventeen 3'ears began the study of medi-
cine. Subsequently entering the Missouri
Medical College, at Saint Louis, he was there
graduated with the class of 1888, having pre-
viously had four years of valuable experience
as assistant house surgeon at the Galveston,
Harrisburg and San Antonio Hospital, at
Columbus, Texas. Dr. Harrison immediately
after receiving his diploma began the practice
of his profession at Clarkton, ilissouri, and
removed to Kennett January 1, 1897, being
in partnership with his father as long as
the father lived. He is one of the foremost
physicians of the city, and in addition to
his extensive local practice is surgeon for the
Frisco Railway Company in Southeastern
ilissouri. The Doctor is active and promi-
nent in medical associations, belonging to
the Southeastern ^Missouri, the State and the
American Medical Associations.
Dr. Harrison married first, at the age of
twenty-eight j-ears, Lillian Hay. of Kennett,
and to them two children were born, Lucille
Harrison and Gilbert. The Doctor married
for his second wife Semantha Moore, a daugh-
ter of David H. Moore, of whom a brief
sketch may be found elsewhere in this bio-
graphical work, and they have one child,
Charles Weldon Harrison.
"William B. Hoener. If we were to select
the one class of men who have helped more
than any other to make of Missouri the thriv-
ing prosperous state it now is. we should
point to the farmer. AVhere there are so
many efficient agricultural men it seems in-
vidious to select one as being more effective
than another, but everyone must receive his
due, and William B. Horner, one of the early
farmers in Dunklin county, is deserving of a
place in the front rank of agriculturalists.
ilr. Horner was born February 8. 1853, in
Dunklin county, within half a mile of the
place where he now resides. He never ex-
perienced a father's affectionate regard, as
that parent died shortly before the little
lad's advent into this world. For the first
six years of his life he was tenderly cared for
by his mother, at the expiration of which time
she too was summoned to the life eternal,
leaving the boy an orphan, indeed. He was
not, however, without relatives, and Grand-
mother Horner took the little boy to her
home, entered him in the schools of the neigh-
borhood, and kept him with her until he was
fourteen j-ears old. At that age his sui--
roundings were again changed, as he went to
live with an uncle, a farmer near Cotton
Plant, who was obliged to work hard himself
and expected his nephew to do the same. At
the time it seemed as if too much was ex-
pected of the young man, but the experiences
he gained during the eight years which suc-
ceeded his introduction into his uncle's house-
hold have been of inestimable benefit to him
in his after life. He learned how to do all
kinds of farm work. — hauling, driving oxen,
etc., and when he was twenty-two years old
he left the house which had been in truth a
home to him and began to farm on eighty
acres of land that had been contracted for by
his father, but paid for by the uncle, who
acted as guardian, besides another forty
acres which had been paid for from reve-
nues derived from the rental of the eighty
acres — one hundred and twenty acres in all,
part of which was covered with timber. Mr.
Horner diligently set to work to clear the
land and built a house in the open space—
among the first houses in Caruth at that
time. For five years he lived there, during
which time he saw houses put up all around
him, and he put his agricultural knowledge
to such good account that he greatly im-
proved the land and was able to dispose of
it at a good price. With the proceeds of the
sale he bought a part of the farm which he
now owns, moving into an old shanty on the
place. He found, however, that the shanty
Was inadequate for his needs and he built a
house on the south end of the farm, which was
the residence for ten years, it then being de-
stroyed by fire. He then bought another
farm, of eighty acres, and removed to the
house located on same, residing there about
a year, then resided on the Prewitt farm, one
mile south of Caruth, until he removed to
Kennett, on account of better educational ad-
vantages for the children. He resided there
one and one half .vears, and then built the
present comfortable home, a nine-roomed
house, one of the biggest and most comfortable
homes in Caruth. At that time, in 1904. he
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
was the possessor of about one hundred acres
of land, but he has since sold eighty acres,
but has made other purchases and now owns
a tract of two hundred and ten acres in the
heart of Caruth, all in a high state of culti-
vation. — the barn and everything else about
the place being up-to-date.
On December 30, 1875, Mr. Horner mar-
ried ^liss ilahuldia Prewitt, practically a
life-long resident of Caruth, as she has been
in this part of the country — a mile and a
.half from town — since she was ten years old.
She was born in Tennessee, coming to Stod-
dard county, Missouri, in infancy and four
years later the family located in Dunklin
county. She was the companion and help-
meet of her husband during his years of hard
work, and now they have both reached a
stage where they can enjoy the fruits of their
labors and watch the prosperity of their six
children, James W., Will. Henry, Hetty, H.
M., and Jane, the three eldest sons are at
home, and the other three, two daughters and
a son, are married.
Thirty-five years ago I\Ir. Horner joined
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, his
initiation taking place in May, 1876, at the
Caruth lodge, and during all these years he
has always been closely identified with the
order. He is affiliated with the Caruth lodge
of the Woodmen of the World and with the
Rebekahs. ilrs. Horner is also a member of
the Rebekahs, of the Woodmen Circle and of
the Missionary Baptist church. In political
preferment Mr. Horner is a Democrat, en-
thusiastic for the success of the party.
LE^^s Joshua Couch, the popular postmas-
ter of Blackwell, was born at Hillsboro, Mis-
souri, August 11, 1874. His father, James H.
Couch, was born in Laclede county, ilissouri,
and spent his life on a farm. He was mar-
ried to Mary Rebecca Reynolds, of Jefferson
county, who bore him the following children :
Theresa 6., who became the wife of Edwin
Sloan; Lewis J; Cora A., who became Mrs.
Samuel McMullen ; Mary A., wife of William
McMullen; Amanda, Mrs. Harden Blake;
Ira J. ; Willis Walter ; and John and Jethro,
deceased. Both Mr. and Mrs. Couch are liv-
ing on their farm in Jefferson county. Mr.
Couch is a Democrat and a member of the
Baptist church. He was for two terms su-
perintendent of the Jefferson county poor
farm.
Lewis J. Couch spent his early life on a
farm in Jefferson county, receiving his edu-
cation at Dry Creek school. After leaving
school he spent four years farming in Jeffer-
son county on a rented place and then went
into railroad work at DeSoto. In 1905 he
came to Blackwell and resumed farming.
Four years later he was appointed postmaster
and still holds this office, serving his sec-
ond term.
In 1896 Mr. Couch was married to Annie
Wade of Dry Creek, Jefferson county. She
died of tuberculosis, leaving one child, Min-
nie. In October, 1902, was solemnized the
marriage of L. J. Couch and Ida Pollett of
St. Francois county. No children have been
born of this union.
Mr. Couch is a member of the church of
his parents' faith, the Baptist, but in pol-
itics he is a Republican. He is connected in
a fraternal way with the ]\Iodern Woodmen
of America.
Hakrt V. Petty. One of the more active
and enterprising of the younger generation of
Kennett's merchants, Harry V. Petty, head
of the firm of H. V. Petty & Company, has
started out in life with brilliant prospects
for a prospei'ous future, his energy, ability
and good judgment and tact bidding fair to
place him ere long among the prominent busi-
ness men of this section of Dunklin county.
The eldest child of William G. and Amanda
M. (Herrmann) Petty, of whom a brief ac-
count may be found elsewhere in this volume,
he was born March 3, 1881, at Cotton Plant,
Missouri.
After completing his early education. Mr.
Petty became familiar with the details of
mercantile pursuits while working for his
father in the hardware and agricultural im-
plement store. In 1911 he started in busi-
ness on his own account, in company with
Laura M. Petty establishing the firm of H.
V. Petty & Company, which has since built
up an excellent patronage as an exclusive
dealer in boots and sboes, their first year's
business being highly satisfactory from a
pecuniary point of view. This firm is the
only one in Southeastern Missouri to deal
in shoes, only, and carries a fine assortment
of shoes of all kinds, the stock being valued
at six thousand dollars.
Mr. Petty married. July 16, 1903. Laura
M. Fletcher, a daughter of Charles Fletcher,
of Rutherford, Tennessee, and they are the
parents of two bright and interesting chil-
dren, namely: Aleeue May and Mozelle Vir-
ginia.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI
891
Hiram J. Houston, one of the prosperous
farmers residing near Senath, Dunklin coun-
ty, has attained his present position of af-
riueuce in the community solely through his
own efforts. It is a noteworthy fact that
that there is no calling in life whei'e the son
so often follows in the footsteps of his father
as in the case of farming. Mr. Houston
started his independent career in his father's
footsteps, but the son's strides have been
longer and more rapid; he has made tracks
of his own, branching out in other directions
than those taken by his father. Hiram Hous-
ton has not only seized every opportunity of
advancement which presented itself to him,
but he has gone out of his way to seek op-
portunities to better his condition, with the
result that he has achieved success.
On the 1st day of December, 1863, Mr.
Hiram J. Houston began life on a farm in
Decatur county, Tennessee. He is a son of
Samuel ^l. and Mary E. (Jennings) Houston.
a Tenessee fanner who never succeeded in
making much more than a good living for
himself and family, and was unable to assist
his sons in their own careers. Hiram J.
Houston remained at home with his parents
until he was twenty-three years of age, dur-
ing which time he learned to do all kinds of
farm work, and he also gained his education-
al training in the little log school house in
jhis district. His father needed his help dur-
ing the summer, so he only attended school
during three months of the winter for ten
years — thirty months of regular instruction
in all, but the young man made the best use
of the time and since he got out into the world
has learned much from observation and from
reading, so that today he is a very well-in-
formed man. In the year 1885 he left home
with practically no money at all in his pocket,
and came to visit his cousin in Missouri, in-
tending return to the parental roof in a short
time. He came by way of Cairo to Maiden
with Al Douglas, who was hauling freight.
At that time the narrow-gauge railroad was
built to Maiden (it being broadened to stand-
ard gauge in 1886), but did not extend to
Kennett, so the yoiTUg man was obliged to con-
tinue his journey on foot, or depend on the
good will of such teams as he found going in
his direction. "When he finally arrived at
Senath, where his cousin lived, he found only
two houses, so that he has seen the town gi-ow
to its present proportions. He stayed with
his cousin for a year, worked for him and for
other farmers in the neighborhood, and at
the end of the twelve months he found him-
self with only thirty-five dollars — the capital
with which he began to fann. He rented a
place near the site of his present home, and in
the year 1893 he bought forty acres of wild
woods, cleared enough of the timber to make
space for a house, and with his own hands
he built the house which he occupies at the
present time. He worked early and late to
clear the place and bring it under cultivation
and now has it all cleared ; he has bought an-
other forty acre tract, which was in a fair
state of cultivation, so that he now farms
eighty acres of land, on which he has him-
self put all of the improvements, and he does
general farming. He was one of the organiz-
ers and original stockholders of the Farmers'
Union Cotton Gin at Senath, established in
1906, and has been general manager for the
past four seasons. An average of about
twenty-five hundred bales per annum are
turned out by this plant.
AVhen Mr. Houston had saved enough
money to buy his first land, referred to above,
he married Miss Lulu Winona Barnes, who
was born in Tennessee in 1867. The worthy
farmer and his wife now have seven stalwart
sons, — Guy R., Ross, Luther, Jennings,
Charles, Lester and Hubert — all living at
home except the eldest, who is married to Miss
Bertha Locke and has his own home in
Senath.
ilr. Houston is a member of the Farmers'
Union and also is affiliated with the Woodmen
of the World, a fraternal order. In politics
his sympathies are with the Republican party,
but he has always been too busy to find time
to dabble in politics. He is, how^ever, inter-
ested in the prosperity of the town, which he
has seen grow up, and of the county in which
he is an honored resident.
Frank Seymour Luckey, a young and
rising physician of Festus. is a native of De-
Soto, Missouri, where he was born March 21,
1882. He is a son of Frank C. and Mary L.
(Jennings) Luckey. The father lived in his
native state of New York until he was eleven
years of age. when the family migrated to
Jerseyville, Illinois, thence moving to a farm
near Janesville, Wisconsin, which was the
homestead for the succeeding two years. The
next change of location was to a farm near
DeSoto, Mi.ssouri, where Frank C. Luckey
reached manhood and married Mary Jennings,
of Henrietta, that state, on the 2ist of May,
]881. The father of Dr. Luckev moved to
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Festus with his family twenty-two years ago,
but although he has become prominent for his
public spirit and active and generous pro-
motion of worth}- movements, he has never
accepted ofBcial preferment. During most
of his residence at Festus he has been en-
in the building and contracting busi-
He is a Republican in politics, a Meth-
odist in his church connections, and a mem-
ber of the ilodern Woodmen of America. Mr.
and ]\Irs. Luckey have become the parents
of six children, and are highly honored as
typical home-builders and moral members of
the community.
After completing the public-school courses
at Festus, Frank S. Luckey moved to DeSoto,
graduating from its high school in 1900 and
for the two succeeding years being in the em-
ploy of the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company.
This business experience, however, was but
the means toward the end of securing a train-
ing in the science and art of medicine. In
1903 he was matriculated in the medical de-
partment of Washington University, St.
Louis, and after a thorough mastery of the
regular course was graduated an il. D. in
the class of 1907. Dr. Luckey at once opened
an office in Festus, and has enjoyed a good
practice from the first. WTiile at the Univer-
sity he was an enthusiastic athlete, having
been a member of the football team of '03, '04
and '06, and he has good cause to believe that
his physical training as a student will come
into fine play in the maintenance of the stam-
ina required of the successful physician in
meeting the wearing and racking ordeals of
his profession. The Doctor is a Republican, a
Methodist and affiliated with the Knights of
Pythias, Red Men and ]\Iodeni Americans.
He is unmarried.
IMartin S. Waeren. Among the most high-
ly respected and widely known of the agricul-
tural citizens of Wayne county is ilartin S.
Warren, who has resided in this locality since
the age of thirteen years and of whose many
personal merits is indication of the general
confidence in which he is held where so well
■well known. His fine farm consists of two
hundred and sixty acres and is situated in
Logan township, Rural Route 4, Township
29. This is adorned with an ample, commodi-
ous home and is highly improved and culti-
vated. ^Ir. Warren devotes his energies to
general farming and the raising of high-
grade stock.
The subject of this biographical record was
born in Lee county, Virginia, April 7, 1843,
and is the son of Rodney and Elizabeth
(Jaynes) Warren, both of whom were natives
of the Old Dominion. The father was born
in Lee county, January 15, 1803, and was the
father of ten children, of whom in addition
to the subject three sisters are living: Mrs.
Jlary Llalloy, residing three miles west of
Piedmont; Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor, of Green-
castle; and Mrs. William H. Daffron, whose
sketch appears on other pages of this work;
and one brother, Benjamin, who is a citizen
of California. Mr. Warren came to Wayne
county in 1856, with his parents who had left
Virginia to seek new fortunes in Missouri.
He came into possession of his present estate
in the year 1868 and has added to his prop-
erty from time to time. He has been par-
ticularly successful in his raising of stock,
which is noted in this section for its tine quali-
ty. He has made all the splendid improve-
ments himself, building his handsome home,
substantial outbuildings and fences of the
most practical sort.
^Ir. Warren laid the foundation of an es-
pecially happy marriage by his union on the
17th day of December, 1868, his chosen lady
being Miss Marj' Susan Black, sister of Mr.
John Black, a farmer residing near Patterson,
WajTie countj'. It has been their privilege
to enjoy a companionship of nearly forty-five
years. Their daughter, Lillian, wife of
George W. Hay, resides in Oklahoma, and one
child died in infancj'. They have also two
grandsons, Warren and William, fine little
lads, aged six and two respectively, ilr. and
]\Irs. Warren retain the vigor and enterprise
of their earlier years and are held in general
confidence and esteem. Politically the sub-
ject gives heart and hand to the men and
measures of the Democratic party. He is a
loyal Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge No.
526 of Piedmont. Missouri, and Mrs. Warren
is a member of the Presbj'terian church.
Jesse David Huffman. A man of ability
and industry, Jesse David Huffman, of Caru-
thersville. is well known throughout this sec-
tion of Pemiscot county as cashier of the
Bank of Caruthersville, an office for which,
by reason of his comprehensive knowledge of
banking and his systematic business methods,
he is amply qualified. A son of the late Jesse
Huffman, he was born October 29, 1864, at
Cottonwood Point, Missouri, coming from a
family of prominence.
Jesse Huffman was bom in Virginia in
HISTORY OF SOUTUEAST MISSOURI
893
1822, and as a boy lived for a number of
years in Tennessee. Early thrown upon his
own resources, he came to ilissouri, and for a
time was employed in cutting wood, which he
sold as fuel to the steamboat companies, mak-
ing mone.y in the operation. He bought land
when it was sold for a song, as it were, and
through its rise in value accumulated consid-
erable property. Prior to the Civil war he
owned a number of slaves, and with their
help carried on general farming on a large
scale, his home being at Cottonwood Point,
where his death occurred in 1890. He was
twice married. By his first wife, w'hose maid-
en name was Melissa Branch, he had eight
children, as follows : Emily ; Blanche ; Susan.
who became the wife of Judge Brasher, of
whom mention may be found on other pages
of this work ; James and William, twins ; Ella ;
Jesse David, the subject of this brief personal
record; and Andrew. He married for his
second wife Mrs. Amanda Powell, and to
them two children were born, namely : Anna
and Edwin, the latter now clerk of the Cir-
cuit Court. Prominent in the field of poli-
tics, Jesse Huffman was at one time .judge
of the County Court, and in 1873 represented
Pemiscot county in the State Legislature.
He was an active worker in religious circles,
and an influential and active member of the
Methodist Episcopal church.
Brought up in Cottonwood Point, Jesse D.
Huffman obtained his rudimentary education
in the pviblic schools, and in 1885 was gradu-
ated from Johnson's Commercial College.
Returning home, he began farming for him-
self on one hundred and sixty acres of land
that had been deeded to him by his father,
and met with such good success in his agri-
cultural labors that he bought more land, and
still owns three hundred and fifty acres that
are under a fair state of cultivation, and
from the rental of which he receives a good
income. On giving up farming ilr. Huffman
embarked in mercantile pursuits at Cotton-
wood Point, from 1892 until 1896 operating
a drug store. In 1902, having disposed of
his mercantile interests, he was elected coun-
ty clerk on the Democratic ticket and held
the office a year. From 1904 until 1905 he
served as public administrator, and the en-
suing three years was cashier of the People's
Bank. Resigning that position in 1908, he
accepted his present office of cashier of the
Bank of Caruthersville, one of the strong
financial institutions of Southeastern Mis-
souri, which has a capital of fifty thousand
dollars and a surplus of twelve thousand dol-
lars, and is well officered, J. H. McFarland be-
ing its president and D. Welsh, the vice-presi-
dent. Mr. Huffman is also connected with
other enterprises of note, being president of
the Farmers' Bank of Braggadocio, Missouri,
and a stockholder, not only of the Bank of
Caruthersville but of the Dilhnan Egg Case
Realty Company and of the Union Gin Com-
pany.
Mr. Huffman married, in 1887, Sarah Wil-
liamson, who was born in Kentucky in 1864,
and they have one child, Lissie. Taking an
active part in local politics, ilr. Huffman was
for four yeai-s secretary of the Democratic
County Central Committee. Fratei-nally he
is a member of the Woodmen of the World,
and religiously he belongs to the Presbyte-
rian church.
James M. Baird. Among the prominent
citizens whom Senath has been called upon
to mourn within the past few years, special
mention should be made of James M. Baird,
whose death, which occurred February 26,
1910, was a loss not only to his immediate
family and friends, but to the entire com-
munity A native of Southeastern Missouri,
he came from honored ancestry, being a son
of Robert Baird, who reared several children,
among those growing to maturity being the
following named : James ]\I., the subject of
this sketch, Robert. M. D.. of Saint Louis;
Edward, of Arcadia. ^Missouri ; and Mamie,
of Saint Louis.
James ]\I. Baird spent his early life in
Iron and Washington counties. Missouri, ac-
quiring a good ediication while young. In
1878, through the influence of T. C. Lang-
don, he came to Dunklin county, and was for
several years in the emplo.v of T. C. Lang-
don & Company at Cotton Plant. From 1881
until 1889 ~Slr. Baird resided in Arcadia, be-
ing there engaged in business. Coming to
Senath \vith his family in 1889. he formed a
partnership with his brother-in-law. Judge
J. ]\I. Douglas, and embarked in mercantile
pursuits under the firm name of J. M. Baird
& Company, carrying a stock of hardware,
carriages, wagons, agricultural implements,
etc., valued at $5,000, and built up a busi-
ness amounting to from $40,000 to $50,000 a
year. IMr. W. R. Satterfield. a nephew, was
subsequently connected with the firm for two
years, during which time the firm name was
Baird, Satterfield & Company. After ilr.
Satterfield 's retirement the firm resumed its
894
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI-
original name of J. 'SI. Baircl & Company, and
continued until 1900, when Mr. Baird bought
out his partner and continued the business
alone until his death. In addition to deal-
ing in hardware, agricultural implements of
all kinds and vehicles of every description,
he handled cotton most of the time, having a
gin, and also had other interests of value,
o^^■ning valuable trj^^cts of laud.
Mr. Baird married, June 16, 1880, Lucy
Douglass, who belonged to an early and
highly respected family, being a sister of J.
:\I. Douglass and A. W. Douglass, of Salem
township. Six children were born to ]\Ir.
and Mrs. Baird, of whom two are now living,
namely : Huldah, wife of 0. H. Storey, cash-
ier of the Citizens' Bank, of Senath; and
Hettie, who is attending school in Des
Moines, Iowa. Mr. Baird achieved distinc-
tion in social and business circles, and as a
result of his ability gained a comfortable for-
tune. Fraternally he belonged to Senath
Lodge, No. 513, A. F. & A. M. ; to Helm
Chapter, No. 117, R. A. M., of Kennett; to
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; to
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks;
and to the Woodmen of the World.
In 1910 Mr. Baird 's heirs were made in-
corporators of the J. M. Baird Mercantile
Company, of Senath, becoming successors of
the J. M. Baird Company, which was founded
twenty years before, it being capitalized at
$30,000, with a surplus of $60,000. Mrs. J.
il. Baird was made president of the Com-
pany; Mrs. Huldah Storey, vice-president;
Miss Hettie Baird, secretary ; and Mr. 0. H.
Storey, treasurer and manager. This enter-
prising company has a regular department
store, its large building, sixty by sixty-five
feet, being really a triple store, in which ten
clerks are kept busily employed. It carries
a fine line of buggies, carriages, wagons, agri-
cultural implements and tools, and a good as-
sortment of hardware of all kinds, and has
a large warehouse, its stock being valued at
$30,000, while the firm's annual business
amount's to about $100,000. The Company
likewise deals in cotton, owning and operat-
ing a cotton gin, which it has recently erected
in place of the one formerly used. It han-
dles from six hundred to one thousand bales
of cotton per year, a business of $65,000,
and during the cotton season gives employ-
ment in this branch of industry to ten men.
This Company has also other property of
much value, including about a thousand
acres of farming land, one half of which is
rented, the tenants growing cotton as tlieir
principal crop.
Mr. Baird was born in Potosi, Missouri,
February 7, 1853, and died at Memphis,
Tennessee, February 26, 1910. He had been
in poor health for several years prior to his
death, and about a month before contracted a
severe cold through exposure at a fire, caus-
ing pneumonia, which, with complications, re-
sulted fatally. Hoping that a change might
prove beneficial, his physician. Dr. Hughes,
and Henry Hathcoek. one of the trusted em-
ployes in the store, took him to ^Memphis,
Tennessee, on February 25, 1910, but he grew
weaker and weaker while traveling, and on
the morning following his arrival in that city
he passed to the life beyond. As the falling
of a sturdy oak leaves a vacant place hard to
fill among the surrounding forest trees, so
the loss of a person like Mr. Baird deprives
family and associates of a noble character,
within whose beneficent shadow it was good
for all to dwell.
C. F. Baumblatt. Many of the thrifty
and well-to-do merchants of our country have
come from the land beyond the sea, note-
worthy among the number being C. F. Baum-
blatt, of Kennett, one of the properietors of
the Kennett Store Company, who is carrjdng
on a substantial business. A native of Ger-
many, he was born in Wurtzburg, Bavaria,
and was there educated.
Coming to America at the age of fourteen
years, Mr. Baumblatt lived for awhile in
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, where he received
his mercantile training. Seeking a favorable
place in which to locate, he next came to Mis-
souri, and for three years was in the employ
of J. S. Levi & Company, at Maiden. In
1892 he secured a position as clerk with Ta-
tum Brothers, of Kennett, with whom he
remained twelve years, acquiring a good
knowledge of the business carried on by that
firm. Mr. Baumblatt then, in 1904, estab-
lished his present clothing house, becoming a
half owner of the present concern, and has
since built up an extensive and highly remu-
nerative trade, dealing in gentlemen's cloth-
ing, shoes and furnishing goods. This firm,
known far and wide as the Kennett Store
Company, carries a stock of goods valued at
eight thousand dollars, and does an annual
business of twenty-six thousand dollars, its
trade being one of the largest of the kind in
Dunklin county.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
895
E. C. Hunter. Conspicuous among the
leading real estate dealers of Kennett is E.
C. Hunter, a large property owner, who has
been among the foremost in advancing the
growth and prosperity of the city, the vari-
ous enterprises with which he has thus far
been associated having proved successful. The
record of his business career is noteworthy,
disclosing keen foresight, great energy and
much ability. A native of Tennessee, he was
born in Weakley county, December 25, 1842,
but his youthful days were spent in Paducah,
Kentucky, where he acquired his early edu-
cation.
During the Civil war Mr. Hunter served
in the Confederate army, enlisting in the
Third Kentucky Regiment, which was first
commanded by Colonel Thompson, who was
killed at Paducah, Kentucky, while at home
on a visit. He continued with his regiment
until the close of the conflict, taking part in
many engagements and receiving but one
wound, and that not a vei-y serious one.
Coming to Kennett, Missouri, in 1885, Mr.
Hunter was in the employ of W. F. Shelton,
Sr., as a clerk for eleven years, after which
he conducted a grocery on his own account
for two years. Since that time he has de-
voted his time and attention to the real estate
business, having been identified with many
transactions of importance, buying and sell-
ing large and valuable tracts of land in Ken-
nett and vicinity. 'Sir. Hunter laid out an
addition to Kennett. in which he has built
and sold many residences, and still owns
about twenty good houses. He has also other
residential property of value in Kennett, and
owns business blocks on Main street and valu-
able farming land in Dunklin county. His
own home is pleasantly located in the central
part of the city, being one of the most at-
tractive in the community.
Mr. Hunter married, in Kennett, Birdie
Hampton, of Kennett, and they are the par-
ents of two children, Charley and Walter,
both pupils in the Kennett High School. Al-
though not a politician, Mr. Hunter served as
county clerk while living in Kentucky, and
for ten years served as a member of the Ken-
nett Board of Education. Both ]\Ir. and Mrs.
Hunter are valued members of the Presby-
terian church.
Elmer Orville Brooks. One of the prom-
inent and promising young business men
of the community is Mr. E. 0. Brooks, who in
spite of his youth has given proof of his abili-
ty in the commercial woi-ld. He made a suc-
cess of managing a mercantile concern for
other parties and now at the early age of
twenty-six, is entering upon his third year
of business for himself, with every indica-
tion of prosperity and permanency.
Lorena, Kansas, was the birthplace of El-
mer Brooks. His father, Gardner Brooks,
went from Huron county, Ohio, his native
place, and settled in Kansas, where he con-
tinued his life-long occupation — that of farm-
ing. He was married in 1881 to Miss Flora
Cole, also a native of the Buckeye state, and
four children were born to them: Harry P.,
Elmer 0., May (now Mrs. Louis Snyder),
and I. Jay Brooks. In 1886 Gardner Brooks
and his family came to Missouri, where they
lived until 1904, when they went back to the
old home in Ohio. The parents are still liv-
ing there in Huron county. They are mem-
bers of the Methodist church and Mr. Brooks
belongs to the lodge of the Modern Wood-
men.
Elmer Brooks was born in 1885. He re-
ceived his early education in the public
schools of DeSoto, Missouri. At the age of
foui-teen he left school to go on a farm at
Blactn'ell with his parents. After three years
at home, he retvirned to Blackwell to clerk
for Hawkins and ^McGready of that place.
He remained with this firm until 1905, when
he went back to Ohio and accepted a similar
position there for a year. From May, 1906,
until November, 1909, he had charge of one
of Hawkins & McGready's stores at Tunnell
Station, but gave this up to go into an inde-
pendent establishment at South Blackwell.
Mr. Brooks handles general merchandise
and has a good trade which is constantly
growing. He is thoroughly acquainted with
the business and with the demands of the
trade in this locality.
Mrs. Elmer Brooks is the daughter of J.
R. Politte, the well-known farmer of Black-
well. He, as well as his daughter Olive, was
born in the state of Missouri. The marriage
of Miss Politte and Mr. Brooks took place No-
vember 28, 1906. They have one sou. Clif-
ford. Mr. Elmer Brooks belongs to the same
lodge and votes the same ticket as his father,
Gardner Brooks. Both of them give their
political support to the Democratic party.
William London. Saint Francois county
is indeed fortunate in the quality of its pub-
lic officials and William London, sheriff since
1908. has labored valiantlv and successfully
896
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
for the enforcement of the law, winning the
gratitude and approbation of the law-abiding
citizens of the county and becoming highlj'
unpopular with those doubtful members of
society whose business too frequently takes
them from the straight and narrow path.
Sheriff London was born July 11, 1873, in
]\Iadison county, Missouri, and thus is a na-
tive son of the state. His father, A. S. Lon-
don, was born in the state of Tennessee in
1841. The early life of the elder gentleman
was passed on the farm and he received his
education in the country schools. Wliile
still a child Mr. London came with his par-
ents to iladison county, :Missouri, where he
engaged in farming with the older people.
At the age of twenty-six he married, IMiss
Nancy Dudley of ^Madison county, daughter
of AVilliam Dudley, of Alabama, becomiug his
wife. Ten children were born to this mar-
riage. William London, the immediate sub-
ject of this review being the second in order
of birth. A. S. London continued engaged in
agriculture until about the year 1885, when
he left the farm and located in Doe Run,
Missouri. He is still living and makes his
home at Flat River, where he has charge of
Die supply office of the Doe River Lead Com-
pany. He is Democratic iu his political affili-
ations; Baptist in his religious convictions,
and a member of the Masonic lodge. He is
well known and highly respected in the com-
munity in which he is best known.
"William London received his early educa-
tion in the public schools of Madison, Saint
Francois county, and at an early age became
an active factor in the great working world.
"\Mien about seventeen years of age he se-
cured employment in the mines and he re-
mained identified with this great industry un-
til 1905, when he became deputy sheriff. As
is so often, and quite appropriately, the ease,
the deputyship led to the main office, and in
the fall of 1908 :Mr. London was elected
sheriff of Saint Francois county, which office
he now holds.
In the year 1893, when twenty years of
age, Mr. London laid the foundation of a
happy life companionship by his union with
Leoi-a Evans, daughter of Samuel Evans, of
Doe Run. Their marriage has been further
cemented by the birth of six children, name-
ly. Emma, Clyde, Carl, Edna, John and
Leora.
Mr. London has not departed from the
faith of his fathers and is Baptist in his re-
ligious convictions. He gives heart and hand
to the men and measures of the Republican
party and his fraternal affiliations are with
the ilasonic Lodge, the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of
America. He is a popular man and a self-
made one, whatever fortune has brought to
him having come through his own enlight-
ened efforts.
John J. Rogers. Prominent among the
leading druggists of Dunklin county is John
J. Rogers, of Kennett, who is also a man of
influence and recognized worth as a citizen,
his business ability being unquestioned and
his character above reproach. A native of
ilissouri, he was born at Vincit, Dunklin
county, October 5, 1875, coming on both
sides of the family from excellent ancestry.
His father, the late William A. Kogers, was
born in 1850, and died while j-et in man-
hood's prime, his death occurring in 1883.
]\Ir. Rogers' mother, whose maiden name
was ]\Iary Cook, was born in 1853, and is now
residing in Kennett, Missouri.
Having acquired his preliminary educa-
tion in the district schools, John J. Rogers
subsequently further advanced his education
in the schools of Kennett, and later com-
pleted a business course of studj' at Quincy
Illinois. When ready to begin his active ca-
reer, he secured a position as clerk with the
Harrison Drug Company, at Kennett, and at
the end of eight years, having obtained a
practical insight into the business, bought out
his emploj'ers and now, in company with G.
C. Wells and Dr. Harrison, is carrying on
an extensive and lucrative business as a deal-
er in drugs, his trade being large and con-
tinually increasing. Mr. Rogers is also much
interested in the agricultural prosperity of
this part of the community, being the owner
of a good farm, from the rental of which he
derives a fair income.
Mr. Rogers married, June 15, 1910, Myrtle
Wells, who was born at Marble Hill, Missouri,
February 22, 1884, a daughter of Jacob and
Jean (Bollinger") Wells, both of whom are
living. Public-spirited and active, Mr. Rogers
is a valued member of the Democratic party,
and for six years rendered his fellow-citizens
appreciated service as mayor of Kennett.
Fraternally he is a member of lodge No. 639,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
at Cape Girardeau.
Theodore Ehrichs. Germany has given
to America a large share of her most substan-
/<k<A'^(/z^<i^^
Z.<u,-<.^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
897
tial citizens — men who not only make comfort-
able homes and rear families which are an
honor to society, but who participate in im-
portant affairs of state with that energy and
practical wisdom which is so distinctive of
America as a nation. Measured by these best
of standards, Theodore Ehrichs, of Festus,
ex-probate judge and agriculturist of broad
acres and broad mind, is fully representative
of the German element which is most highly
valued b.y those who have always considered
the ideal nation one which is founded on
family comfort and sobriety, widespread pros-
perity and solid happiness resting upon health
of body and mind.
Judge Ehrichs' life in the Fatherland com-
menced with May 9, 1844; on that day he
gladdened the hearts of his parents, Wil-
helm and Louisa (Fritzberg) Ehrichs, who
had welcomed eleven children before him
and were to be blessed with one after him.
The father was a hard-working schoolmaster,
born in 1800, who died in 1850, the mother,
M'ho was his junior by about a dozen years,
surviving her husband until 1898; but both
spent their entire lives in Germany, being
wedded to its modest and peaceful condi-
tions.
Theodore, the son, was of the energetic,
long-sighted temperament which chafes at
confinement, and quite early in his boyhood
became a sailor, being thus engaged until he
was twenty years of age. His wanderings
tinally brought him to the United States, and,
guided by his inherent common-sense and
the instincts of his German blood, he deter-
mined to learn a trade which he knew would
be in demand in the new and undeveloped
country of southwestern Illinois on the other
side of the river from St. Louis. Locating
in Madison county, he therefore mastered the
carpenter's trade, following it as a journey-
man in various localities for a number of
years. He finally crossed the Mississippi in-
to Jefferson county, Missouri, and became a
successful builder and contractor at Hills-
boro.
After marrying his first wife, in 1875,
Judge Ehrichs began his active farming in
Jefferson county, and has made that his main
occupation since, although his home is in the
city of Festus. His farm is located near Rush
Tower, in this county and consists of three
hundred and twenty-five acres, and is one of
the most valuable and attractive in South-
east Missouri. An honored resident of Fes-
tus for many years, he has given the farm
his personal attention and his carefully se-
lected and tended live stock is a credit to
the state, which has stood in the front rank
of that industry for many years. The strength
and probity of his character have given the
•Judge both wide popularity and higli reputa-
tion, and outward manifestations of this gen-
eral sentiment have been numerous. As a
Republican he has repeatedly served in the
conventions of his party, and in 1902 he
was elected by his warm supporters to the
probate bench, which office he honored for
four years. He is also a Mason of high stand-
ing, and conforms to the tenets of the order
both in sjiirit and in letter, which means that
he is a fraternalist in every sense of the word.
Judge Ehrichs married as his first wife, in
1875, Miss Alice Weaver, of Jefferson coun-
ty, by whom he has three living offspring — •
Ella Louisa (Mrs. Coney McCormick), Dora
"Weaver and Georgia Minnie. Mrs. Alice
Ehrichs died in 1886, and in 1903 the Judge
married Miss Sophia Euler, by whom he has
had one child, Marie Minnie. Judge Ehrichs
is a natural musician and highly talented,
and although he has contributed to many en-
tertainments, etc., he has never made a pro-
of the art.
W. D. Lasswell, president of the Camp-
bell Lumber Company at Kennett, Missouri,
has had a noteworthy career since he first
started in business. He was born January
7, 1861, in Dunklin coimty, Missouri, the son
of D. J. Lassw-ell, who came from Tennes-
see to Missouri in 1854, where he was both
a merchant and a farmer. He died at the
age of sixty-nine.
W. D. Lasswell attended school in his na-
tive town and very early in life began to
show signs of business qualifications. When
he was just a lad he began to clerk and by
dint of the strictest economy he managed
to save five hundred and fifty dollars. With
this capital he opened a store at the old
Four Mile village, removing to Campbell at
the advent of the railroad and the demise of
the old village. He continued in the mer-
cantile business until 1907, having been
very successful during these years. Before
that time he and his brother, J. F., had be-
gun to manufacture lumber, a business
which has since assumed such extensive
proportions. The Lasswell Milling Com-
pany was started in 1893 and in 1897 it
transferred its property to the Campbell
Lumber Company, the Lasswell brothers be-
898
HISTOEY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
ing the principal stockholders. In 1898 "W.
D. became president of the company and act-
ing manager. He widened the scope, build-
ing a large mill at Kennett. since -which time
a big business has grown up. The officers at
the time of its incorporation were W. D.
Lasswell, president, 0. A. ^McFarland, vice
president, Louis Allen, secretary and treas-
urer. Its present capital is one hundred
thousand dollars. The mill cuts sixty thou-
sand feet of logs daily, doing an annual busi-
ness of three hundred thousand dollars. The
Company employs four hundred men and its
expenditure is seven hundred dollars daily. It
has a saw mill, a planing mill and a stave
mill. It owns six thousand acres of land in
Arkansas and has built thirty miles -of rail-
road to supply the mill. In 1898 Mr. Lasswell
was worth about twenty thousand dollars and
since that time his capital has steadily ad-
vanced, so that now he is looked up to as
one of Southeastern Missouri's mo.st success-
ful business men. He has taken a great in-
terest in land development, having pushed
drainage developments and opened up
farms. Mr. Lasswell, in company with his
brother, has for the past three years been a
large drainage contractor, having com-
pleted works of one hundred thousand dol-
lars in magnitude.
In 1883 he married Miss Jennie Barham,
of Dunklin county, to which union six chil-
dren have been born: Alvin, Fred, Gus,
Bill, ilurray and Marie.
Mr. Lasswell is a member of the Method-
ist Episcopal church of Campbell, where he
not only gives of his money, but he is always
ready to help in the enterprises of the
church in any other way that is possible.
There are few men in the county who have
attained the prominence that is enjoyed by
Mr. Lasswell and none are held in higher
esteem.
Cicero Collins. Among the popular and
prominent citizens of fronton, Missouri, is
Cicero Collins, the recent purchaser and pres-
ent proprietor of the New American Hotel.
For twenty years past IMr. Collins has been
interested in the milling business in Iron
county and at Tiff, Washington county, Mis-
souri, he has been running a saw mill and
manufacturing lumber for the past year. He
formerly resided at Sabula, Missouri, where
he enjoys general esteem.
]Mr. Collins was born in Iron county, in
the southeastern part of the state, on the
24th day of July, 1850, and is the son of
Moses P, and Elmira (Wilson) Collins, na-
tives of Kentucky and North Carolina, re-
spectively. The father, who was born in
1813, came to Missouri in 1826, when a boy
of thirteen, with his parents, Joseph and
Julia Collins, both of whom were born near
Covington, Kentucky. The mother was born
in North Carolina and came to this state
with her parents, William and Julia Wilson.
These worthy people, who were agricultur-
ists, as were all of their family, settled in
Wayne county, near Piedmont. William Wil-
son located in the eastern part of Iron county,
six miles east of Sabula, and there engaged
in the cultivation of the soil. He died in
1873, and his wife survived him until 1882,
his demise occurring at the age of eighty-four
years. They were consistent members of the
Baptist church and the father was a stanch
and lo.val Democrat. Cicero was one of a
family of nine children, of whom but five
are living. An enumeration of the orig-
iiial number is as follows: Jane, who died
young; Lafayette, deceased; William, de-
ceased; Isaiah, deceased; Taj-lor, of Pied-
mont, Missouri; Cicero, the subject of this
sketch; Joseph, of Arcadia; Lee, of Wayne
county, residing near Greenville ; and George,
who still resides on the old homestead in the
southern part of Iron county.
]\Ir. Collins, immediate subject of this bio-
graphical record, received his education in
the common schools of Iron county, where
he has resided throughout almost the entire
course of his life. As before mentioned, he
has engaged in the milling business for a
score of j'ears and he also owns a fine farm
near Sabula, his other activities not pre-
venting him from managing it himself. It is
a tract of five hundred and twenty acres, and
is devoted for the most part to general farm-
ing. He has also engaged in merchandizing
at Sabula for the past twelve years, in addi-
tion to milling and farming.
Mr. Collins laid the foundation of a happy
married life when, on the 23rd day of De-
cember, 1872, he was united in marriage in
Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, to Virginia
Weast, daughter of Samuel and Fannie Weast
and who was born in the Old Dominion and
came to Missouri as a child with her parents.
The sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Col-
lins are as follows : Birdie, wife of A. F. Blan-
ton, of DeSoto, ^Missouri : ]\Iyrtie, who be-
came the wife of H. E. Homan, of Marquand,
Missouri ; Hartford, who is located at Sabula,
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
in the lumber business, and who married Nel-
lie Johnson; Etta, wife of Frank Willett,
of near Sabula, ilissouri. farmers; Stella,
wife of J. T. Dunn; the ]\Iisses ilamie. Ina,
Virgie and Hazel, an attractive quartet of
j'oung ladies still residing beneath the home
roof ; and one child who died in early infancy,
unnamed.
ilr. Collins has ever taken an active and
intelligent part in the affairs of any com-
munity in which lie has resided and his in-
fluence in affairs of public moment is of the
most important character. Fraternally he
is affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of
America, his membership being with the An-
napolis lodges.
Lee TV. Rood. A man of versatile talents
and vigorous mentality, Lee "\V. Rood, of
Caruthersville, has gained distinction for his
activity in advancing the educational status
of this part of Pemiscot county, and is now
an important factor in promoting the finan-
cial welfare of the city, as cashier of the Peo-
ples Bank being associated with one of the
leading institutions of the kind in Southeast-
ern Missouri. Mr. Rood organized this bank
in 1905, and served as its president until
1909, in the meantime placing it on a sub-
stantial basis. He was born March 18, 1865,
in Guei-nsey county, Ohio, and was brought
from there to IMissouri in infancy.
Robert D. Rood. Mr. Rood's father, was
born in Wisconsin, August IS, 1833, and
married Nellie J. Wilson, who was born in
Guernsey county, Ohio, October 10, 1834.
Soon after the close of the Civil war he
came to Missouri, bought land in Callaway
county, and on the farm which he improved
has since resided, he and his good wife hav-
ing a pleasant home.
Growing to manhood on the parental farm,
Lee W. Rood gleaned the rudiments of his
education in the rural schools of his district,
subsequently continuing his studies at West-
minster College, in Fulton. Missouri. At
the age of seventeen, years he began life on
his own account as a school teacher, and for
seventeen j-ears was actively associated with
the schools of Caruthersville, firet teaching
in the rural schools for seven years and later
serving as superintendent of the schools for
ten years. He taught first in a small frame
building, among his fellow-teachers having
been the charming yoiing lady who subse-
quently became his wife. During ]\Ir. Rood's
superintendency of the Caruthersville schools
he organized the present efficient public
school system, properly grading the schools
from the primary through the high, and in-
troduced newer methods of teaching, not only
raising the standard of the Caruthersville
schools, but increasing their value and effic-
iency.
In 1905 ilr. Rood was instrumental in
founding the Peoples Bank, of which he was
elected president, as above mentioned. This
sound institution has a capital of $50,000; a
surplus of $25,000; and deposits amounting
to over $300,000. It is carrying on a large
and constantly increasing business, and pays
large dividends. "Sir. Rood is a large prop-
erty owner, having title to four hundred
acres of land, a part of which he rents, and
owning several business houses. He also
deals extensively in real estate, in this line
of work having a lucrative patronage.
3Ir. Rood married, :\Iarch 16, 1887, Belle
Gregory, who was born in Montgomery coun-
ty, Missouri, October 8, 1866, and they have
one child, Robert F. Rood, whose birth oc-
curred January 9, 1902. In his political af-
filiations ilr. Rood is a stanch Democrat.
Fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks and to the ]\Iodern
Woodmen of America. He was formerly vice-
president of the State Teachers' Association,
and a member of its executive committee, and
for a time was president of the Southeast
^Missouri Teachers' Association. Religiously
he is an elder in the Presbyterian church, to
which Mrs. Rood also belongs, and is a faith-
ful worker in its Sunday school.
JoHN^ Joseph Axdrev? Hii.gert. A young
man who is coming to be known as one of the
leading educators of Southeastei-n ^Missouri is
Prof. John Joseph Andrew Hilgert. who has
brought to his several charges a wise and pro-
gressive leadership which has resulted in the
most definite and excellent results. As it has
been said of another educator, it is his aim
to teach the younger generation to be "of
quick perceptions, broad sympathies, and
wide affinities; responsive, but independent;
self-reliant, but deferential ; loving truth and
candor, but also moderation and proportion;
courageous, Init gentle ; not finished, but per-
fecting. ' '
Professor Hilgert is a native of Jefferson
county, Missouri, his birth having occurred
at House Springs, July 31, 1884. His father,
Andrew Hilgert, was also born at House
900
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Springs, in the year 1859. The elder gentle-
man was reared on the country homestead of
his father, John Hilgert. who died when An-
drew was a boy. The little family, left so
suddenly without a head was in sore predica-
ment, but the young shoulders of Andrew and
his brother. John C. accepted a large share
of the burden, these two lads assuming the
greater part of the work and responsibility of
the farm. There they grew to manhood and
became worthy citizens. Andrew Hilgert
was married in 1881 to Mary Leight. of Jef-
ferson county, and their union has been
blessed by the birth of nine children, eight of
whom are living, and the immediate subject
of this biographical record being the second
in order of birth. The family is as follows:
Katie ^I. (now J\Irs. Gus Diehl), the subject,
Joseph T. R., Henry E., Lizzie K. (Mrs.
Fred Flam), Louis F., Leo P.. and Albert.
The father and mother reside upon the old
homestead, secure in public esteem and in
the enjoyment of a host of friends. The
father is one of Jefferson county's Democratic
standard bearers, but up to the present time
he has steadfastly refused nomination for
office, although urged on several occasions
to make the run for county judge. He and
his family are communicants of the Catholic
church. He affiliates with the Modern "Wood-
men of America and the Ancient Order of
United Workmen.
The early life of Professor Hilgert was
passed upon the farm, an experience which he
shares with the majority of our national
heroes. He received his earlier education in
the public schools, continuing as a student
of the same until the age of seventeen years.
He then matriculated in the Cape Girardeau
Xormal Training School and there took an
extended course. He began his career as a
teacher in 1904 at the Heads Creek School,
and then accepted a position in the schools
of House Springs, where he continued for
period of one year. In Kimmswick since 1906
he has assumed his present position in the
Kimmswick schools, of which he is superin-
tendent. During his regime the school has
won more prizes than any other in the coun-
ty and it is conducted along the most up-
to-date and enlightened lines. Its enrollment
has increased from seventy to one hundred
and twenty, two rooms being for the white
pupils and one for the colored.
Professor Hilgert was married on the 18th
day of Septpinber. 1907. the young woman
to become his wife being Miss Dollie Crom-
well, of Eureka, Missouri, and they are both
prominent in the affairs of the coramunity.
^\Irs. Hilgert is a daughter of Henry and Mary
Brimmer, Cromwell and a native of Jefferson
county, ^Missouri.
Professor Hilgert, like his brothers, is a
self-made man, and has made his own way
unaided to his present high standing. He
was asked to accept the county superintend-
ence' of schools, but declined, refusing the
trust on account of his youth. He is Demo-
cratic in his political conviction, attends the
Catholic church and fraternizes with the
Court of Honor.
Is.vDORE W. ]\IiLLER. One of the vigorous,
progressive and successful business men who
are contributing most distinctively to the in-
dustrial and civic prosperitj^ of southeastern
Missouri is this well known and highly es-
teemed citizen of Desloge, St. Francois coun-
ty, where he conducts a large and prosper-
ous general merchandise business, his es-
tablishment being known as the Globe store.
His initiative energy and achninistrative pow-
ers have found various other avenues of en-
terpi-ise and his capitalistic and business in-
terests are of broad scope and importance. He
is liberal and public-spirited as a citizen and
commands the high regard of those with whom
he has come in contact in the various rela-
tions of life. He is a j'oung man whose ster-
ling character and fine business ability have
enabled him to achieve large and worthy suc-
cess, and he is well entitled to representation
in this history of southeastern Missouri.
Isadore William Miller was born in the
province of Nomakst, Russia, on the 14th of
February, 1880, and was about three j'ears of
age at the time of his parents' immigration
to America. He is a son of Ruben and Ida
(Bloom) ]\Iiller, both of whom were likewise
born in that same Russian province, where
the respective families have lived for many
generations. Ruben Miller was born in the
year 1857 and was twenty-six years of age
at the time when he came with his family
to America. Of the nine children Isadore W.,
of this sketch, was the first born, and of the
number three sons and one daughter are now
living. The parents now maintain their home
at St. Louis, Missouri, where the father has
lived virtually retired since 1909. after a
long and successful business career. Soon
after his arrival in America Ruben Miller
located in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee,
where he turned his attention to agncultural
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
901
pursuits and where he continued to reside for
several years, after which he engaged in the
mercantile business in the state of Kentucky.
After there maintaining his home for eight
years he removed to Greensburg, Pennsj'l-
vania, where he was engaged in the same
line of enterprise until 1895, when he came
to Missouri and located at Elvins, St. Fran-
cois county, where he built up a large and sub-
stantial general merchandise business, to
which he continued to give his attention until
1909, when he sold the same to his two sons,
Isadore W. and Harry A., and he has since
lived retired, in the enjoyment of the just
rewards of former years of earnest endeavor.
He had practically no financial resources
when he came to America and thus his suc-
cess stands as the direct result of his own
efforts, the while he so ordered his course
as to gain and retain the respect and good
will of those with whom he has come in con-
tact in the land of his adoption. He is a
staunch adherent of the Republican party,
and both he and his wife are devoted to the
religious faith of their ancestoi-s. being lib-
eral in the support of the Jewish church and
appreciative of its noble history.
The boyhood days of Isadore "VV. Miller
were passed principally on his father's farm
in Tennessee, and after duly availing him-
self of the advantages of the public schools
he was enabled to attend for a time Vander-
bilt University, in the city of Nashville,
though in the meanwhile he had initiated his
association with practical business affairs.
"When but twelve years of age he began to
assist in his father 's store, and two years later
he found employment in a mercantile es-
tablishment at Davis, "West Virginia. Later
he was similarly employed at Beaver Falls,
Pennsylvania, and at the age of seventeen
.years he came to the west. He resided for a
short period in Arkansas and then located
in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he
secured a position as salesman in a men's
furnishing goods establishment. Later he
was engaged with a mercantile business at
Bloomfield, this state, and still later he en-
gaged in the general merchandise business at
Columbus, Kentucky, where he remained un-
til 1901, when he sold his interests in that
place and came to St. Francois county, Mis-
souri, where he soon afterward became as-
.sociated with his brother in the purchase of
their father's mercantile business at Desloge.
Here he has since continued the enterprise
with marked success, and the Globe store con-
trols a large and representative patronage,
based upon fair dealings and punctilious serv-
ice in all departments. Mr. Miller is also
president of the Citizens ' Bank of Desloge ;
is vice-president of the Herculaneum Mercan-
tile Company, which conducts a prosperous
general merchandise business at Herculane-
um. Jefferson county; and is associated with
his brother in the ownership of a flourishing
general store at Elvins, St. Francois county,
where the enterprise is conducted under the
firm name of Miller Brothers. He is the own-
er of a substantial business block at Bonne
Terre, this county, and he is senior member
of the firm of Miller & Gradj', which is en-
gaged in the real-estate business and which
has valuable properties at Bonne Terre, Des-
loge, Flat River and Leadwood. He is in-
dividually the owner of valuable realty in
his home town of Desloge, and is one of its
most progressive and public-spirited citizens.
His energy is indefatigable and his wide-
iiwake, progressive policies have gained him
marked success and prestige as a business
man of sterling character. He is one of the
heaviest stockholders of the Lead Belt Tele-
phone Company and is ever ready to lend his
aid and influence in the support of measures
and enterprises projected for the general good
of the community. ]\Ir. Miller gives his sup-
port to the principles and policies of the Re-
publican party, and is affiliated with the Mod-
ern Woodmen of America, the Knights of
P.ythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows and its adjunct organization, the Daugh-
ters of Rebekah, and also with the Royal
Neighbors and the Select Knights.
On the 26th of June. 1904, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. Miller to Miss Jennie M.
Dehovitz, of St. Louis, and they have a win-
some little daughter, Helen Sarah.
Ed Anderson, whose general merchandise
establishment at Hornersville is one of the
growing business enterprises of the town, has
been identified with Southeast ^Missouri since
1896 and is one of the well known and
esteemed citizens of Dunklin county.
He was born in Tennessee, November 20,
1870, and was reared in Hickman county, iji
the middle of that state. There he attended
school. When he came to ilissouri in 1896 he
was without money, and the substantial prog-
ress he has since made is the best evidence
of the qualities of industry and business judg-
ment which he possesses. At that time there
was no railroad at Hornersville, and he has
902
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
lived liere long enough to witness the prin-
cipal development of the country. For one
year he worked at Neshit, for four years at
Cotton Plant, two years at Senath and five
years at Kennett, and then in July, 1909,
came to Hornersville and established his pres-
ent business. Being well known and enjoy-
ing the confidence of the people in this
vicinity, he has a good trade and one that he
is constantly increasing.
]Mr. Anderson was married at Nesbit in 1899
to iliss ilaude Parker, daughter of ]\Ir.
Henry B. Parker, of Hornersville. They
are the parents of two children: Nellie Lee
and ilary J. Mr. Anderson affiliates with"
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a
Democrat in his political beliefs, and he and
his family belong to the Methodist church.
South.
E. ]\I. Thilenius. One of the great prob-
lems of the age is the color question and it
is .iust as much a problem today as it was
fifty years ago when the negroes were the
cause of contention between the north and
the south. For the most part those who were
influential in freeing the slaves have passed
beyond the difficulty and to their descend-
ants is left the task of deciding what shall
be done with the colored race. George C.
Thilenius, member of the convention which
abolished slavery in the state of Missouri,
had no more difficult task than his son. who
lives in the age whose business it is to
establish the status of the negro in the state
and country.
George C. Thilenius was born in the king-
dom of Hanover, Germany, August 10, 1829.
His father, who was also named George C.
gave him all the advantages that were
afforded by the private schools in his native
country. At that time there was no public
school sj^stem. After his general education
was completed, he was apprenticed for a
term of four years in the city of Gottinseu.
Hanover., to learn the merchandise business,
completing his apprenticeship when he was
niiipteen j-ears of age. That same year he,
his father and his mother (whose maiden
name was Charlotte Stuhldrehen) with his
three sisters, all embarked on a sailing vessel
and started for America. After a stormy
passage of eight weeks the family arrived at
New Orleans, full of hopes and fears. The
weather was warm and favorable, and the
flowers seemed to smile a welcome to the
wearv travelers. They took a boat and made
their way up the river to St. Louis where
they looked around them and considered the
prospects in the mercantile line. The follow-
ing year, in 18-19, George C. Thilenius, Jr.,
with his father opened a store in what was
then the village of St. Louis. This arrange-
ment continued until 1853 when George C.
Jr. was engaged by W. H. Belcher, sugar
refiners of St. Louis, to go to Matanzas, Cuba,
in the interests of their branch refinery at
that city, where he remained three years. At
the end of that period he returned to St.
Louis and engaged in the wholesale business
until 1857, at which time he removed to Cape
Girardeau and entered into pai'tnership with
"William Bierwirth in the general mercantile
business. The following year, in 1858, he
bought out the interests of his partner, put
in a larger line of goods and did a flourishing
business until 1863. When the war broke
out. in 1861, he took an active part in
organizing the first troops that were raised at
Cape Girardeau in defense of the Union. In
1862 he received the commission of Captain
by Governor Gamble and later in the same
year he was promoted to the position of Lieu-
tenant Colonel of the militia and placed in
command of the fourth military sub-district
of Missouri by Governor Fletcher, who later
gave him the commission of Colonel. In 1865
he was elected by the counties of Bollinger,
Cape Girardeau and Perry to the constitu-
tional convention which abolished slavery in
the state of Missouri. In 1865, after the close
of the war, he commenced the erection of the
far famed Cape City mills. His success in the
new venture was assured from the very start.
The mills became famous for the quality of
flour produced, carrying off first premiums at
almost all competitive exhibits. In 1873 he
sent some of his flour to the World's Exposi-
tion at Vienna in Austria and was awarded a
medal of merit and a diploma for the best
flour. At the exposition at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, in 1876, he received similar
recognition.
In 1857 he married Miss Margaret Fromann
of St. Louis. She was a native of Cobourg,
Germany, having come to this country when
she was a young girl. Mr. and Mrs. Thilenius
had one son and three daughters.
The Colonel was always active in public
affairs. He was mayor of Cape Girardeau in
1867, 1869 and 1871. He was greatly inter-
ested in all educational matters, realizing
that it was there, with the school boy and
school girl that the future of the nation lay.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
He was instrumental in establishing the
public schools in Cape Girardeau. He died
July 7, 1910, having lived a good life, full of
usefulness for his fellow men.
His son, Emil M. Thilenius was born June
17, 1869, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where
he was brought up and educated, attending
the public schools which his father was the
means of introducing into Cape Girardeau.
After leaving school he was in business with
his father for about three years, but later
took full charge, leaving his father free to
attend to his many other duties, ilr. Thil-
enius is now the proprietor of the Cape City
Bottling Works, located at 228 North Pacific
street.
December 27, 1896, he married Miss Emma
Dittlinger, the daughter of Alphonse and
Katie Dittlinger, old- residents of Cape Girar-
deau. Four children were born to this union,
Eona, Paul, Arthur and Herbert.
Mr. Thilenius is a member of the Benevo-
lent and Protective Order of Elks, of the
Eagles, of the Knights of Pythias and of the
Sons of Veterans, having a very high stand-
ing in all of these organizations. He is a
Republican in politics and has always been
greatly interested in public affairs. For sev-
eral years he was township committeeman
and was a member of the board of education
for three years and reelected for three j^ears.
more. He has by no means reached the limit
of his capabilities and as he is always ready
to do anything that will promote the good
of his native town, where both he and his
wife have spent the whole of their lives, his
party will undoubtedly keep him as busy as
he will permit. Mr. and Mrs. Thilenius are
both very hospitable and like nothing better
than to entertain their numerous friends at
their home. They are both extremely popular.
Judge Jesse H.' Schaper. The history of
a nation is the history of its people; like-
wise, the history of Southeastern Llissouri is
the history of its people, and not one of the
least known of these is Judge Jesse H.
Schaper, of Washington. On the contrary
Judge Schaper is prominently and effectively
identified with this .section of Missouri, in
connection with the valued service he has
rendered in his capacity as probate judge of
Franklin county, a position he has held since
1902.
Judge Schaper was bom near Troy in Lin-
coln county, this state, on the 21st of No-
vember, 1865, a son of William and Julia
(Sandfos) Schaper. The father, William
Schaper, was a native of Hanover, Germany,
born in 1820, from whence he came to the
United States at the age of twenty-one and
began farming, making of this vocation a con-
siderable success. When the clouds of the
Civil war began to lower, Mr. Schaper en-
listed as a member of the Home Guards and
served in the interests of the Union until the
close of that war. As above stated, the
mother of our subject was Julia (Sandfos)
Schaper, whose father fought with Blueher's
army in the battle of Waterloo and thus
helped save all Europe from the domination
of the French. For this service ilr. Sandfos
was presented with a medal upon the battle-
field, which he always treasured. He sub-
sequently came to the United States axid
settled in Lincoln county, Missouri, a neigh-
bor to Mr. Schaper, and in friendly neigh-
borhood gatherings began the acquaintance
of William Schaper and Julia Sandfos,
which culminated in their marriage. To
this worthy couple were born six children,
as follows: Henry, of Lincoln county;
Louis, deceased; Mary, who became the wife
of Henry Gerdemann; William, who died in
1907, leaving a wife and family in Warren
county; Charles, of Lincoln county; and
Judge Schaper, of this review. Mrs. Schaper
passed on to the Great Beyond in 1867. Mr.
Schaper took for his second wife Mary PoU-
mann, by whom there were two children:
Frank and Jennie, and the daughter married
Theodore Schemmer of Warren county, Mis-
souri. The father of William Schaper and
the grandfather of our subject was also
named William, and he had two other sons,
Hermann and Henry, both of whom married
and reared families in Lincoln county, this
state.
Judge Jesse H. Schaper can therefore most
truthfully be called a "son of Missouri."
being bom in Lincoln county, that state, in
which county his father and grandfather also
passed most of their lives. And he is no
prouder of Missouri than Missouri is of him.
His career as a lawyer had its birth when he
decided on that profession as his life voca-
tion when he was still a youth in the rural
schools of his native county. Accordingly,
when he was but seventeen years of age. he
entered Central Wesleyan College at War-
renton, and graduated therefrom in 1889. re-
ceiving his degree of B. A., whereupon he im-
mediately matriculated in the Missouri Uni-
versity department of law, graduating from
904
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
that institution in 1892, his diploma admit-
ting him to practice ia the courts of the state
and to the federal courts of St. Louis. De-
termined to upset the theory that ' " a prophet
is not without honor save in his own coun-
try, ' ' he began the practice of his profession in
his own state, settling in Washington, Frank-
lin county, and here he has pursued his pro-
fessional activities for almost two decades,
gaining an enviable record as a modern type
of the enterprising, progressive and honorable
attorney. His crimiiuil as well as his civil
practice has gained him favorable comment
and professional fame beyond the limits of
his own judicial circuit, which is reflected by
an ever-growing and ever-widening clientele.
In 1902 Jesse H. Schaper was chosen pro-
bate judge of Franklin county, and after
serving a full term in this office he was again
chosen to succeed himself, serving four years
more and again returning to the office with an
increased acquaintance and a wide popularity
among his constituents whom he has served
so faithfully and so well. He has partici-
pated in many forensic battles during his
professional career, one of the best known of
which was his defense of the bank robbers
and murderers, Collins and Rudolph, charged
with the murder of detective Shoemacher and
the looting of the Bank of Union several
years ago. One of the cases in which he was
chief counsel, which is well remembered in
that county, was a civil one involving the
validity of the will of H. Tibbe, who be-
queathed a large amount of property to Eden
College of St. Louis and to the German Synod
of North America. He was associated in the
case with Judges Lubke and Muench of St.
Louis, the latter being now circuit judge of
that city. The trial in the lower court went
against them, but the brief on appeal was
prepared by Judge Schaper and said law
firm and resulted in a reversal of the case
and a verdict for the defense and the sus-
taining of the will, the brief being commented
upon by judges of the higher tribunal as one
of the best efforts in that line on record. Mr.
Schaper has for six years been legal adviser
of Wa.shington. He is likewise attorney for
the Franklin County Bank, of which he is a
stockholder, and is a director of the piiblii-
schools.
In politics Judge Schaper has always allied
his vote and bis services with the Republican
party, and has taken an active part in local
elo'>tinns, ns liis aforeiiicntioned record shows.
Tic is an Odd Fellow and a :\rodern Wood-
man, occasionally relaxing from the arduous
and confining duties of his profession for a
pleasant chat with his fellow lodge members.
In religious affairs he is a devout adherent
of the Methodist Episcopal church, having
been, as he laughingly asserts, "brought up
a 3Iethodist."
Judge Schaper laid the foundation for a
home and hearth of his own when he married,
in Franklin county, Missouri, Miss Jessie
Mai'tin, a daughter of Judge John R. Martin,
a pioneer and one of the leading lawyers of
Franklin county. He was a man of fine edu-
cation and intellectual ability, a Republican
of the early organization who helped to bring
the party into shape for its first national
campaign. He was especially adept in ad-
ministration work, and was appointed by
Governor Fletcher of Missouri as the first
probate judge of Franklin county. Judge
Martin was the Republican candidate for
congress from his district in 1886, but was
defeated in a general Democratic victory.
His daughter, Jessie Martin Schaper, in-
herited her father's mental acumen, she being
a woman of high intellectual powers. She
was a teacher in the public schools before her
marriage, her education having been com-
pleted at Synodical College, Fulton, Missouri.
She is at present superintendent of the
Presbyterian Sabbath-school, and is especially
pleasing in her manner with young folks.
Judge and Mrs. Schaper have six children :
Florence, Phoebe, Margaret, John Martin,
Jessie and Randolph.
No more fitting tribute could be paid to
Judge Schaper than that he is beloved by his
family, esteemed by his friends, honored by
his legal confreres, and respected by his
political or judicial opponents.
John D. Phelps. The father of John
Phelps was Reverend D. S. Phelps, a native
of Kentucky. He preached the gospel in
southeastern Missouri for many years and also
worked at the blacksmith trade. He was a
minister of the Congregational denomination
and for six years before his death, in 1910,
had lived in Oklahoma. He died in Lutes-
ville, where his wife had died twenty years
before. She was born in Illinois and her
maiden name was Nancy Roland.
John D. Phelps was born on the last day
of July, 1874, at Millerdale, Cape county,
Missouri. He attended school in Lutesville
and at Will jMayfield College. He taught
school in 1897 and 1898 in Mississippi
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
905
count}-. The following two years he farmed
in the same county and then worked at public
works, doing draying until 1907. During
this period he spent eleven months in Okla-
homa for his health, but with that exception
has lived continuously in Missouri. In 1907
Mr. Phelps accepted the position of manager
of the Poultry House of Goodwin & Jean of
Lutesville. This concern handles sixteen
thousand pounds of poultry every month and
two thousand cases of eggs annually. They
also deal in hides.
Mrs. Phelps was formerly a resident of
Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the daughter of
Joseph Arthur, of Bollinger county, now
retired. She was married to John Phelps
June 27, 1897. The children of John and
Iva Arthur Phelps are: Austin A., born
August 9, 1898; Nellie May, three years
younger; Joseph Elbert, bom in 1903; and
Ruby Idella, born in June 1907.
Mr. Phelps has been connected with the
Odd Fellows' lodge for five years and has
been a Modern Woodman for ten years. He
is a member of the Presbyterian church of
Lutesville, in which place he owns residence
property.
The father of J. D. Phelps was married
three times and John is one of fifteen children
born of the second marriage. Eleven of these
are still living, and they reside in this county,
in Ai-kansas, in Colorado, Kansas, Washing-
ton and in St. Louis.
Captain Daniel Hatnes. A well-known
and highly esteemed citizen of ]\laldeu,
Dunklin county. Captain Daniel Haynes
served with distinction as an officer in the
Civil war, and now, in these days of peace
and prosperity, is serving with equal ability
and fidelity in public positions, being justice
of the peace and notary public. A native of
Illinois, he was born June 3, 1839, in Wayne
county, where he grew to man's estate,
spending his earlier years on the old home
farm.
During- the progress of the Civil war he
promptly responded to the call of Governor
Yates for one hundred-day men, and was
mustered into the state service by General
U. S. Grant. On May 28, 1861, he was mus-
tered into the United States service by Cap-
tain T. C. Pitcher as a member of the
Eighteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry,
which was under command of Colonel M. K.
Lawler, serving for three years as a brave
and faithful soldier. On June 8, 1862, on
account of gallant conduct on the field of
battle, he was promoted to the rank of cap-
tain, having earned his promotion in the en-
gagements of Fort Donelson and Shiloh. The
Captain was in the fiercest of the fight at
Fort Donelson, where thirteen of his com-
rades were killed, and at Shiloh he was at the
front during two days of fighting, his regi-
ment forming a part of General John A.
McClelland 's division. He took part in the
siege of Vicksburg, and with his comrades he
was later sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, and
was an active participant in the engagements
at Elba and Saline River, where a shot in the
left leg shattered a bone, and he was obliged
to give up active service for a time. Captain
Haynes subsequently did special court-
martial duty, later being inspector of army
supplies. At the expiration of his term of
service he was honorably discharged at
Springfield, Illinois, and returned to his old
home in Wayne count}-, where he served as
deputy sheriff and sheriif.
In 1870 Captain Haynes located in Stod-
dard county, Missouri, and in 1877 became a
resident of Dunklin county. Having formed
a partnership with Sylvester W. Spiller, he
filled several contracts on the narrow-gauge
railroad, grading several miles of the road,
reaching ilalden, Missouri, July 4, 1878.
Jloving a frame building from Cotton Hill,
three miles away, to Maiden, the Captain and
ilr. Spiller put in a stock of railroad sup-
plies, and on the completion of the railway
in the following spring, installed a full line
of general mei'chandise and embarked in
business under the firm name of Spiller,
Haynes & Company, Mr. J. H. ilcRee subse-
quently being admitted to partnership. The
firm built up a good business, and in addition
to the selling of groceries, dry goods, etc.,
bought all the cotton grown in the country
roundabout, erected a gin, and made a spe-
cialty in dealing in cotton until 1881, when
that branch of the business was abandoned
on account of the credit system then intro-
duced.
The firm then accepted a contract for grad-
ing the right-of-way for the railroad for a
distance of twenty-five miles south of JIaldeu,
and in the spring of 1882 the grading was
finished and the ties ready to be laid. The
road, however, passed into the hands of a re-
ceiver, and after taking debenture the firm
of Spiller, Haynes & McRay realized but
sixty cents on the dollar, even after waiting
four or five years and liaving a law .suit.
906
HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Captain Haynes then embarked in agricult-
ural pursuits, opening up a farm and carry-
ing on a good business as a dealer in cattle.
He bought a large tract of land at tive dollars
an acre, the land being heavily timbered, and
after clearing one hundred and twenty acres
of it sold it for thirty-tive dollars an acre, the
same land at the present writing being worth
fully one hundred dollars an acre. Leaving
the farm in 1905, the Captain returned to
IMalden. and has since been actively engaged
in official work, having been elected justice of
the peace, a position which he had previously
filled for six years, and is also serving as
notary public, positions for which he amply
qualitied and which he is filling with credit
and honor.
A stanch Democrat in politics. Captain
Haynes was chairman of the first Board of
Trustees of ilalden, serving for six years
after the organization of the village. Frater-
nally he is one of the charter members of
Maiden Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted
Order of IMasons, with which order he united
forty-five years ago and which he has served
most acceptably as master, and of which he
is now secretary. He is also a Roj-al Arch
Jlason, and he represented his IMasonic Lodge
at the Grand Lodge of JIasons in Jlissouri.
The Captain read law in early manhood,
but was not admitted to the bar, although his
legal knowledge has oft times been of inesti-
mable value to him in his business enterprises.
He has dealt in real estate to some extent,
having sold several hundred acres of ^Missouri
land. In 1877, when he was engaged in rail-
road work, he frequently saw bear tracks in
the woods, and as a hunter found not pleas-
ure only, but considerable profit, at one time
selling seventy dollars worth of hides and
pelts.
At Clarkton, Dunklin county, ]\Iissouri,
November 6, 1879, Captain Haynes was
united in marriage with Judith E. McCou-
nell, who was born in Obion county, Tennes-
see, and came to ^Missouri with her imele,
Gilham Hopper, who is now living retired at
Maiden. ]\Irs. Haynes died in April, 1889, at
a comparatively early age. Of the six children
born of their union two died in infancy and
four are living, namely: Irene, a stenog-
rapher and bookkeeper for the Campbell
Lumber Company, at Kennett, Missouri;
Inez, wife of Dr. J. B. Sharp, of Senath, Mis-
souri ; John A., who is connected with the
Iron Mountain Railroad Company; and
Xancy, who presides most gracefully and ably
over her father's household.
Many funny anecdotes are told of Captain
Haj'ues. On one occasion a young man was
brought before him charged with stealing a
saddle. The young man pleaded guilty and
in assessing his punishment Captain Haynes
said: "Young man, owing to the fact that
you have a great deal of competition in your
business I will make your punishment light.
I will fine you twenty-five dollars." On an-
other occasion a man was sued for delinquent
poll tax before the Captain, and, not wishing
his case to be tried before him, prepared an
affidavit for a change of venue, which motion
Haynes at once overruled. The man told him
he had a right under the law to a change of
venue. "I know it," said Haynes, "but a
man who refuses to pay his taxes is an unde-
sirable citizen and not entitled to the protec-
tion of the law." At the proper time judg-
ment was rendered by default, the man's
wages were garnisheed and the tax collected.
Captain Haynes has the reputation of being
very just and impartial in his rulings and
decisions, and is seldom reversed by the
higher courts.
Charles L. Jones. Upon the practical,
broad-minded citizens who do things, de-
pends the spirit and progressiveness of any
community, and Caruthersville owes much of
its business reputation to such men as
Charles L. Jones, who has done much of the
building and carpenter work in the city for
several years, building up an enviable reputa-
tion in that line of enterprise. Although
still in the ver\' prime of life, Charles L.
Jones has accomplished more solid construct-
ive work than many men do in a life time.
He was born in Franklin county. Illinois, in
the year 1871, a son of James Calvin and
Sarah (McGlasson) Jones, and was brought
up by his parents in a comfortable farm
home. His father, James Calvin Jones, was
a good carpenter and many comfortable
homes stand today in Franklin county,
Illinois, as monuments to his ability as a
carpenter. His death occurred in 1887, the
mother's in 1890.
Charles L. Jones engaged in the carpen-
ter's trade in Stoddard county before coming
to Caruthersville in 1900. In that year he
came to his present location and has been
actively engaged in his chosen pursuit ever
since. He has several fine buildings to his
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
907
credit and specimens of his work may be
found throughout the county. He owns four
lots at the corner of Eighth street and Grand
avenue, on which in December, 1910, he
erected a splendid two stoi-y, ten room house,
with an ingenious double hallway, and in this
house he and his brother, Dr. B. F. Jones
(with whom he has lived since sixteen years
of age) make their home.
Dr. Jones is a graduate of the North West-
ern iledieal School of St. Joseph, Missouri,
and has been a practicing physician over
thirty years. In 1883 he was married to Jliss
Minnie Clara Smith, of Louisville, Kentuckj',
and their four children are as follows : Anna,
the wife of William Cone, of Bloomfield,
Missouri, is the mother of two children and
she resides near her father in Caruthersville,
where she and her husband own two lots and
a very cozy home. Grace is the wife of James
W. Spencer, of Saint Louis, associated with
the Smith & Davis Manufacturing Company
of that city. Clarence Odeu, sixteen years
old, is a student at the local high school, and
Virginia Lee, aged twelve, is still in school
and, like her brother Clarence, remaining at
tlie parental home.
Charles L. Jones is a bachelor and frater-
nallv is entitled to wear the blanket of the
Red" Men.
William G. Bray. With a remarkable ca-
pacity for the handling of multitudinous
details, and a concentration of purpose that
enables him to make everything work to de-
sirable ends, William G. Bray, cashier of the
Bank of Senath, holds high rank among the
more active and successful business men of
this part of Dunklin county, his interests be-
ing many and varied. A son of W. E. Bray,
he was born, December 25, 1869, at old Four
ilile, Dunklin county, of honored pioneer
stock.
Born in Tennessee in 18.35, W. E. Bray was
a son of Jamea Allen Bray, of North Carolina,
whose wife, a Miss Tillman, of South Caro-
lina, was a kinswoman of Senator Benjamin
R. Tillman, of South Carolina, and of Con-
ductor Bob Tillman, of the Cotton Belt Rail-
way. At the age of seventeen years W. E.
Bray came with his parents to Dunklin
county, Missouri, where he studied for the
ministry, and for many years has been em-
ployed as a preacher in the Baptist church,
his home at the present time being in Camp-
bell, Missouri. He married, at Valley Ridge.
^Missouri, Quilla Gregory, a daughter of
James Gregory, a pioneer settler of Dunklin
count.v, who located on the present site of
IMalden settling years before the incorpora-
tion of the town, and there lived until nearly
one hundred years of age, at his death being
the oldest person of his community, and next
to the oldest one in Dunklin county.
Receiving his preliminary education in the
district schools, William G. Bray subse-
cjuently completed his early studies at the
State Normal School, although several years
later, on May 25, 1905, he was admitted to
the Dunklin county bar before Judge J. S.
Fort, and is a member of the Bar Association.
After leaving the Normal School, ilr. Bray
was for five years employed in railroad work,
being in the offices of the Frisco, the Cotton
Belt, and other railways. In 1893 he had the
misfortune to receive a gunshot wound in his
left arm while out hunting, but the accident
in nowise diminished his love for the sport.
Mr. Bra.y was subsequently for three years
employed by E. S. [McCarthy & Co., contract-
ors during the construction of the Kennett
& Southern Railroad. Locating then at
White Oak, Dunklin county, he was there en-
gaged in the milling and mercantile business
for a time, being afterwards similarh' em-
ployed in Dent county, Missouri. Turning
his attention then to agricultural pursuits,
]Mr. Bray carried on general farming at Ken-
nett for a year, and in 1908 embarked in the
drug trade at Senath, and continued so em-
ployed until the organization of the Bank of
Senath, of which he was one of the promoters.
Mr. Bray was very active in the founding of
'•his financial institution, which was organ-
ized July 2, 1902, with a capital of fifteen
thousand dollars; its surplus and undivided
profits being now fifteen thousand dollars,
while its deposits are between one hundred
thousand and one hundred and fifteen thou-
sand dollars. Mr. Bray erected the building in
which the bank is housed, sold the stock,
opened the bank, and has served as its cashier
ever since its organization. He has other in-
terests of value, being a stockholder, and the
secretary, of the John M. Karnes Store Com-
pany ; and being the owner of a fine farm of
two hundred acres lying south of Senath.
He operates his farm through tenants, one
hundred acres of it being devoted to the
growing of cotton. He is an extensive dealer
in horses and mules, with barns in Senath,
handling about one hundred head a year,
finding profit in the industry.
Politically ]\Ir. Bray is a stanch adherent
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
of the Democratic party, but is not an aspir-
ant for public office at any time. Fraternally
he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows; and to the Paragould Lodge, No.
1080, Benevolent and Protective Oi-der of
Elks; and to other beneficial organizations.
:\Ir. Bray married, July 17, 1907, Ora A.
j\Ioore, a daughter of the late B. A. ^loore,
of whom a brief account may be found else-
where in this book, in connection with the
sketch of David Moore. Mr. and ilrs. Bray
have no children of their own, but they have
reared a nephew of Mr. Bray's, Ernest R.
Bray, a lad of eighteen years, now employed
as a clerk in the store of the John M. Karnes
Store Companj'.
Robert L. Wade, of JIalden, is vice-presi-
dent and manager of the ilalden Hardware
and Furniture Company, one of the most
important (if not, indeed, the most impor-
tant) concerns of its kind in Dunklin county.
This enterprise, which has experienced con-
stant growth since its first coming into
existence in 1905, is a business so subtantial
and well managed as to contribute not only
to the success and prosperity of its owners
but to that of the entire community as well.
Mr. Wade was born June 29, 1862, and is a
son of Robert C. Wade, president of the
Maiden Hardware and Furniture Company
and also interested in the agricultural devel-
opment of this part of the state. The elder
gentleman, who is one of the most prominent
citizens of the county, was born in Tennessee
in 1831 and served almost throughout the
Civil war as a member of the Army of the
Tennessee, his sympathies naturally being
with the institutions of the South. He re-
sided in Arkansas for a time and in 1889
came to Maiden, where he has ever since made
his home, and of whom mention is made on
other pages of this work.
Young Robert secured his education in the
schools of Hickory Plains, Arkansas, and
passed his earl.v youth upon his father's
farm, continuing as the assistant in his agri-
cultural endeavors until the age of twenty-
four years, and becoming so well-versed in
the many departments of the great basic in-
dustry that he might well have continued as
its exponent as far as familiarity with it is
concerned. At the age mentioned he left
home and for two years resided at Des Arc.
On March 4, 1890, Mr. Wade took up his resi-
dence at Jlalden and secured a position with
Johnson ^larks. a ^^ciieral merchant, in whose
employ he continued for a year. A year
later he went into the Allen Store Company,
as a stock-holder, his role in the affairs of the
concern being as buyer. His mercantile
career, which had begun most auspiciously,
was interrupted by ill-health and he spent
some time in St. Louis recuperating. After
regaining his natural strength and vigor he
went to work for T. C. Stokes as salesman
and remained with him for over three years.
When his father decided upon establishing
an independent business and having the sub-
ject as his partner in the enterprise, he gave
up his other interests and since 1905 he has
acted as manager and vice-president of the
Maiden Hardware and Furniture Company.
This has experienced the best of fortunes and
is one of the big houses of Dunklin county,
the executive ability and good ,]udgment of
the immediate subject being one of its most
valuable assets. It is an incorporated con-
cern.
Mr. Wade forsook the ranks of the bache-
loi-s when, on April 15, 1896, he was united
in marriage to Nellie C. Hill, daughter of E.
W. and Cora (Bartlett) Hill. Mrs. Wade
was born September 27, 1876, at Bloomfield,
Illinois, and she and the subject share their
pleasant home with two children — Wolford
C, born February 4, 1897; and Cora Nell,
born July 24, 1907. Mr. Wade is one of the
pillars of the Democratic party, ever giving
heartiest support to its men and measures.
He is a member of the ancient and august
ilasonic order and he and his wife are mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.
James S. Wahl. A man of distinctive
energy, ambition and pronounced business
acumen, thoroughly public-spirited and pro-
gressive, James S. Wahl, of Caruthersville,
began life for himself as poor as the poorest
of boys, for ten years, even, roving the coun-
try, more especially the western states. His
native talents, industry, and the inherent
self-consciousness of his ability, however,
took possession of him at an opportune time,
and he is now classed among the more enter-
prising, progressive and wealthy men of
Pemiscot county, his interests being varied
and of great importance. A son of Lewis
Wahl, he was born in 1864, in Daviess county,
Kentucky, of German ancestry.
Lewis Wahl was born May 1, 1810, in Wit-
tenburg, Germany, and was there brought up
and educated. Immigrating to the United
states when twenty-two years of age, he fol-
>fe^^ Wa
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI
909
lowed his trade of a piano manufacturer for
manj- .years in Kentucky, but spent his last
days in Tennessee, dying December 27, 1901.
His wife, whose maiden name was Harriet
Thomas, was born February 29, 1832, in
Gibson county. Tennessee, and died in Milan,
Tennessee. February 18. 1882.
Receiving his early education in the public
schools of jMilan, Tennessee. James S. Wahl
left home a beardless boy of seventeen years
and for ten j-ears thereafter roamed the
country without aim or purpose, stealing
rides on box cars or wherever he could find a
hold, in the meantime working as a farm
laborer or at odd jobs when his pocket was
empty. In 1889, having, as Kipling ex-
presses it, "found himself," Mr. Wahl took
up his residence in Bernie. Stoddard county,
Missouri, where for a year he clerked in a
grocery and drug store. Going from there to
Kennett, Missouri, he ran a pool room for
eighteen months, and then went back to
Bernie, where, within a little more than a
year, he lost one thousand six hundred dol-
lars in the saloon business, or at least, was
that much in debt when he retired from that
industry.
Locating in Caruthersville, Missouri, in
October, 1891. 'Sir. Wahl conducted a pool
room in this city for two years, making money
in the operation. Embarking then in an en-
tirely new occupation, he began shipping in
ice on a small scale, and also dealt in beer
and soda water, peddling his ice in a wheel-
barrow at first. Devoting his energies to his
business, he has since built up an enormous
trade in soda water, and now carries on a
substantial business, manufacturing and sell-
ing a thousand cases daily, shipping not only
soda water, biit ciders and all brands of
vinegar to various points within a radius of
one hundred miles, his patronage being verj-
large. He is likewise agent for the William
J. Lemp Brewing Company, of Saint Louis,
and in the management of his afl'airs era-
ploys thirty-five men. In addition to his
plant at Caruthersville ilr. Wahl has sixteen
branch establishments in other near-by
towns, and is the sole proprietor of all of
them.
In 1902. in company with Mr. Schult and
J. F. Gordon, he established an ice manufac-
turing plant at Xew ^Madrid. Missouri, and
still retains an interest in it. In 1904, with
other business men. he bought a small ice
plant in Caruthersville, enlarged it to its
present capacity of fifty tons of ice a day.
and was manager of the plant from 1904 un-
til 1910, when, owing to his multitudinous
cares, he withdrew from his position. He is
vice-president of the Caruthersville Ice and
Light Company, which supplies the city with
electric lights, the company, in which he
holds one-fourth of the stock, having been in-
corporated with a capital of one hundred thou-
sand dollars. Mr. Wahl is also president of the
]\Iarianna, Arkansas, Ice and Storage Com-
pany, in which he holds forty per cent of the
entire stock; is president of the Southern
Supply Manufacturing Company, which
manufactures soda fountain supplies, fix-
tures, and syrups, its plant being located in
Memphis, Tennessee; a stockholder in and
president of the Chaffee Cold Storage Com-
pany, of Chaffee, Missouri ; a stockholder of
the Pemiscot County Bank; a stockholder in
various companies of minor importance; and
is financially interested in the Ice Cream
Company recently organized at Caruthers-
ville. Mr. Wahl likewise has other interests
of great value, owning five business blocks
and three residences in Caruthersville, and
having both residential and cold storage
property in Hayti, Pemiscot county.
^Ir. Wahl mari-ied, in 1891, Conchie Doug-
las, who was born in IMilan, Tennessee, a most
estimable and highly respected woman. Po-
litically Mr. Wahl is an adherent of the
Democratic party, and, though not an office
seeker, he has served acceptably as an alder-
man of the city. Fraternally he is a member
of Caruthersville Lodge, No. 461. Ancient
Free and Accepted Order of ]\lasons: of
Helm Chapter, No. 117, Royal Arch ]\Iasons;
of Cape Girardeau Council ; and of Cape
Girardeau Commandery, No. 55, Royal and
Select ^Masters; of ^Missouri Consistory. No. 1,
at Saint Louis: of Moolah Shrine, at Saint
Louis ; and of Memphis Lodge, No. 27. Benev-
olent and Protective Order of Elks, at
Memphis, Tennessee, of the Knights of
Pythias and of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows.
Stephen Hug. There are few records in
human annals which cover a series of more
stirring adventures, laid in more widely sep-
arated regions of the earth, than those
which constitute the life history of Stephen
Hug, who at his beautiful rural home near
Crystal City now peacefully reviews nearly
eighty-two years and fearful conflicts with
warriors of Africa, Russia and America.
As eloquent proof that he was well to the
910
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
front where the blows and bullets fell thick-
est, he still carries in his body wounds re-
ceived in the Dark Continent, from the
brave Russians of the Crimea wnen he
fought under the standard of his native
France, and from the dashing Confederates
at "Wilson Creek while fighting with equal
valor M-ith the Stars and Stripes above him.
Stephen Hug is a native of Pres de Col-
mar, Alsace, department du Haut Rhin,
Germany, where he was born on the 24th of
December, 1829. He is of stable farmer
stock, a son of Anton and Marianna (Kuhn)
Hug. The father died at the age of sixty-
four years. The son spent his early life in
France and was educated in both French
and German. He served in the regular
army from 1848 to 1850, and then from 1850
to 1856; and at the age of eighteen he had en-
listed in the French army and went to
Africa. For seven years, from 1848 to 1856,
he served in the Third Regiment of Zouaves
in the province of Constantine. From there
he embarked for the Crimean war at Galli-
poli, Turkey, on the war vessel Gemap, and
while en voyage traversed the ]\Iediterra-
nean sea and the Dardanelles. They de-
barked from the Gemap in the port of Gal-
lipoli and passed behind the Adrianople.
Two days later, while on the march, the
army was taken with cholera and within
forty-eight hours three hundred and sev-
enty-four soldiers and one hundred and
sixteen officers died. They then counter-
marched to Adrianople and took the route
to Varna, then crossing the Black sea to
Eupatoria, where on the following day the
battle of Alma was fought; for this engage-
ment their chief commander. General St.
Arneaut, taking with him to the field one-
half of each company of the whole army
and holding the remainder in reserve on the
vessels. The battle lasted for six hours and
resulted in defeat for the Russian army.
General Menchikoff, commander-in-chief of
the Russian army, brought with him his
family that they might have the pleasure
and satisfaction of witnessing the repulse of
the French and English army, boasting that
he would drive them to the sea, but the
honors were awarded to General St. Arneaut
and his noble warriors. On the second day
following, the latter general called a halt
and ordered his men from the front to the
rear and placed his command in charge of
General Canrobert, telling liim to take Se-
bastopol as soon as possil)le with the forces
he had, "for," said the General to Canro-
bert, "if you wait more than forty-eight
houi's you can not take it, as the enemy
forces are close at hand." A short time
after thus turning the army over to General
Canrobert he very suddenly died.
For the service of Mr. Hug in those cam-
paigns a medal was awarded him by
Queen Victoria, on which is inscribed the fol-
lowing battles: Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava
(where he received a scalp wound from a
sabre), Tcharnaija and Sebastopol (where
he received a serious wound in the left
temple from a shell and which laid him up
about a month), and besides these battles
many skirmishes and sorties. In the follow-
ing spring he returned home, and in 1860
made preparation to come to the United
States, which then threatened to become all
but united. On arriving on these shores
Mr. Hug first located in Pittsburg. A year
afterward he moved to St. Louis, and at the
outbreak of the Civil war' joined the First
]\Iissouri Regiment of Union troops. He
fought with them sturdily and skilfully, and
gathered in two more wounds at the historic
engagement at Wilson Creek.
After the close of the Civil war Mr. Hug
located at Selma Kennett Castle, Missouri,
where he remained for about five years,
then taking up land on the island near Crys-
tal City. In 1879 he removed to his present
homestead, known as Hug's Landing. He
has since improved his estate until it is one
of the most beautiful and valuable farms
in southeastern Missouri. With his fertile
and thoroughly cultivated lands, substantial
brick residence and neat concrete walks, a
picturesque and peaceful country home
overlooking the broad sweep of the Missis-
sippi river, Mr. Hug is not only enjoying
such comforts and charms of life, but the
unbounded respect and affection of his
many friends and the deep love of those
closer to him. He has never dabbled in
politics, although every one knows that he
will be found at every election with a Dem-
ocratic ballot in his hand. In his religious
belief he has always been a Catholic.
Mr. Hug has been twice married, first, in
1856, while living in France, to Miss Ther-
esa Maurrer, by whom he had two children :
Theresa, now Mrs. Wittier, and Justine,
now Mrs. Purges. Mrs. Theresa Hug died
in 1895, and in the following year Mr. Hug
married Mrs. Annie B. Rooney. He has had
no children by his present marriage, al-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
911
though his wife by a former union is the
mother of William Francois Didier and
Margaret Didier, the latter now Mrs. Cos-
ier.
Despite his years ilr. Hug is still hale
and hearty and personally looks after his
estate. He is a successful man and of that
most inspiring and admirable type — the
self-made man.
Ch.\rles T. Hubbard. Among the repre-
sentative Missourians is Charles T. Hubbard,
who owns and operates a small farm on the
edge of Clarkton and who in addition to his
agricultural pursuits is also interested in the
general merchandise business, being em-
ployed in Godsey's store at Clarkton. He is
loyal and public spirited in his civic attitude
and is ever on the alert to do all in his power
to advance the general welfare of Dunklin
county and the state at large.
Charles T. Hubbard was born at Clarkton,
Missouri, on the 30th of May, 1874, and he is
a son of M. "\V. and Elizabeth (Hodges)
Hubbard. The father was a native of the fine
old Bluegrass state of the Union, having been
born and reared in Madison county, Ken-
tuek>', whence he removed to Dunklin county.
Missouri, about the time of the outbreak of
the Civil war. He was a farmer and merchant
by vocation and at the time of his demise,
which occurred in ilay, 1900, he was a man
of extensive prominence and influence in this
section of the state. Mrs. Hubbard, who is
now living at Clarkton, was born in Smith
county, Tennessee, and she is a daughter of
Judge R. L. Hodges, who came with his fam-
ily to Jlissouri in the early '50s. Of the four
children born to IMr. and Mrs. M. W. Hub-
bard. Charles T. is the subject of this notice ;
Robert G. and Walter JI. are mentioned on
other pages of this volume ; and ]\Iollie is the
wife of B. F. Jarman, a farmer near Clark-
ton.
^Ir. Hubbard, whose name forms the cap-
tion for this article, was reared and educated
at Clarkton and he remained on the farm
with his father until the latter 's death, in
1900. After that event he inherited a tract
of thirty-seven acres of the old paternal
estate and after disposing of some of his
property as town lots he still retains twenty-
seven acres, on which he is engaged in general
farming. He makes a specialty of corn and
cotton and has an acre and a half of land set
out to apple and peach trees. He has ten
hogs and a number of cattle and horses. In
the spring of 1911 Mr. Hubbard began to
work as a clerk in Godsey's store at Clarkton
and he expects to continue as such. In poli-
tics he is a stanch Democrat and in fraternal
circles he is affiliated with Lodge No. 8788,
ilodern Woodmen .of America. He is also a
valued member of the Domestic Workers of
the W^orld and of the Mutual Protective
League. In their religious faith he and his
wife are consistent members of the Presby-
terian church, in the different departments of
whose work they are most active and zealous
factors.
On the 1st of June, 1904, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. Hubbard to I\Iiss Bettie
C. Templetou, a daughter of S. G. and Luella
(Williamson) Templeton, both of whom were
born and reared in Tennessee. Mrs. Hubbard
has one sister, Mrs. Anna Lee ]\Iurrill, of St.
Francois county, Missouri. Mr. and ilrs.
Hubbard are the fond parents of two children,
Templeton, whose birth occurred on the 6th
of June, 1905; and Martha Luella, born on
the 4th of November, 1907. The Hubbards
are popular and prominent factors in connec-
tion with the best social activities of Clark-
ton, where their attractive home is recognized
as a center of most gracious hospitality. Mr.
Hubbard is genial in his associations, kindly
and courteous in his address and he is every-
where accorded the imqualified confidence
and esteem of his fellow men.
Samuel E. ]\Iitchell. It is entirely within
the province of true history to commemorate
and perpetuate the lives and character, the
achievements and honor of the illustrious
sons of the state. High on the roll of those
whose efforts have made the history of medi-
cine in ilissouri a work of fame appears the
name of Dr. S. E. ]\Iitchell, who for the past
five years has been numbered among the medi-
cal practitioners at Maiden, ^Missouri.
Mitchell is strictly a self-made man, his educa-
tion having been obtained through his own
well directed endeavors. In addition to the
work of his profession he is deeply interested
in real-estate and farming operations in the
vicinity of ^lalden and he is also an active
participant in public affairs, his intrinsic
loyalty to all matters affecting the good of
the general welfare having ever been of the
most insistent order.
A native of the fine old Buckeye state of the
Union. Dr. Mitchell was born in Lawrence
county, Ohio, on the 21st of December, 1872,
and he is a son of Everett and Ellen ilit-
912
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :MISS0URI
cliell. both of whom are uow deceased. The
father was active in couneetiou with the iron
furnace at Ironton, Ohio, during the greater
portion of his business career, having owned
a half interest in that concern. He was about
the only Democrat in his section of the state,
where he was party leader and where he fre-
quently served as judge of elections. Dr.
]\Iitchell was reared to the age of fifteen years
at Ii-onton, Ohio, where he received his pre-
liminary educational ti-aining. In 1887 he
began to teach school as a means to secure
further education, continuing to be engaged
in that particular line of work for a period
of ten years and having as his ultimate goal
the study of medicine. At one time he was
principal of his home school at Ironton, hav-
ing some seven teachers under his direct
supervision. In 1901 he pursued a course of
two years in the University of Ohio and in
1902 he came to Missouri, where he entered
the medical depai'tment of the University of
St. Louis, in which he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1906, duly receiving
his degree of Doctor of .Aledicine. His me-
dicinal course included two years spent in a
hospital in St. Louis and a short time passed
as demonstrator in the medical department of
his alma mater.
In 1906, shortly after his graduation. Dr.
Mitchell came to Southeastern Missouri on a
homeseekers' excursion, and becoming deeply
impressed with the attractions of the country
and the prospects for a good practice hq
settled at Maiden, where he has resided during
the intervening years to the present time.
Previously he had revisited Ohio and Vir-
ginia in search of a location and had about
decided upon Oklahoma as a choice field but
he never reached that state. When Dr. Mit-
chell landed in Maiden he was about one thou-
sand dollars in debt, but his energy and skill
soon won him a large and representative
patronage and he is now recognized as one of
the foremost business men and citizens of this
place. He has dealt extensively in real-estate
in ]\[alden, where he now draws rental from
some ten or twelve modern residences, and in
addition thereto he is also the owner of a fine
farm of two hundred acres in New ]\Iadrid
county, this state. He is a heavy stockholder
in the Building & Loan Association and in
connection with his medical work is a valued
and appreciative member of the Missouri
State ^Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. Dr. Mitchell attributes
a great deal of his splendid success to the
kind help given him by his old friend, Charles
I\Iason, but without his own energy and ability
no amount of assistance could have won him
such distinctive prestige in five short years.
While he usually votes the Democratic ticket
in political affairs he is not tied down to party
principles. He has served with unusual
efficiency on the local register bureau of
vital statistics and on the state board of
health and in addition thereto has also been
a member of the United States Pension Board.
Dr. Mitchell was united in marriage, in
1901, at Charleston, Illinois, to Miss Sally
Cook, a daughter of John Cook, long a repre-
sentative citizen of that place. Dr. and Mrs.
Mitchell have no children. In their religious
faith they are devout members of the Metho-
dist Episcopal church, in which he is a mem-
ber of the board of trustees and steward. In
fraternal circles he is affiliated with the lodge,
chapter and council of York Rite Masonry
and he is also connected with the Knights of
Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of
America.
J. W. Adams. Distinguished as one of
the leading barbers of Pemiscot county, J. W.
Adams, of Caruthersville, has one of the finest
equipped tonsorial establishments in South-
east Missouri, and is widely known as an
expert in his profession. He was bom in
Saint Clair countj', Illinois. May 25, 1868, a
son of C. W. and Margaret Ella Adams. His
father, a miner, worked at his chosen occupa-
tion in the mining fields of Illinois and Indi-
ana. The parents had a family of four chil-
dren, as follows: J. W., the subject of this
brief biographical sketch ; Edward, who died
in JIalden, Missouri, in 1888; Charles, who
met with an accidental death in childhood,
in Joppa. Illinois, having been drowned in
a well; and Ida, the only daughter and the
oldest child, married Elijah Smith, of Stod-
dard county, Missouri, and died in Bell City,
that county, in 1893, leaving one daughter,
Anna, now the wife of James Pate, of Deer-
iug. Missouri.
Leaving Illinois when a boy, J. W. Adams
worked in various places and at various
employments, eventually locating at Tipton-
ville, Tennessee, where he followed his trade
of a barber for six years, gaining in the mean-
time skill and experience in his chosen work.
Coming from there to Caruthersville, Mis-
souri, in 1896, ]\Ir. Adams bought a barber's
shop near the river, and while in that locality
acquired a good reputation for skilful work-
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
913
mauship. Remaining there but a j-ear and a
half, he sold out and bought a shop in the
business section of the city, and about four
years ago, his constantly increasing patronage
demanding more commodious quarters, he
purchased the building in which he is now
located and in which he is carrying on a large
and highly remunerative business, in his
establishment having five chairs and three
bath-rooms. Mr. Adams has also acquired
other property of value in Carathersville,
owning the building now occupied by the
Gil Hill Drug store, and three good lots and
houses in the city, one of which he occupies,
his home, at the corner of Highland avenue
and Sixth street being a fine, two-story house,
well finished and well furnished.
Mr. Adams married, in Tiptonville, Ten-
nessee, Clara Mooney, a daughter of Edward
Moone.y, of that cit.y, and into their house-
hold four children have made their advent,
namely: Charles, born ]\Iarch 6, 1895, attends
the Caruthersville High School; Edward,
born March 20, 1897, is a pupil in the same
school; Cora Allie, born November 27, 1900;
and Ethel ilarie, born March 15, 1902. Fra-
ternally Mr. Adams joined the Beuevolent and
Protective Order of Elks at Cape Girardeau,
and is now a member of Caruthersville Lodge,
No. 1233. of Caruthersville, having been
transferred to it from Cape Girardeau Lodge,
No. 639, of Cape Girardeau. Religiously Mrs.
Adams and the children belong to the ]\Ietho-
dist church, and take much interest and
pleasure in forwarding its work as far as lies
within their power.
Edward Allen, who is closely identified
with the advancement of the agricultural in-
terests of Dunklin county, is pleasantly located
in the town of Campbell, where he is profitably
engaged in the cultivation of the soil, in the
management of his well-kept farm meeting
with signal success. A native of this county,
he was born, December 30. 1861, in Union
township, and was there reared to man's
estate.
His father, Elihu Allen, was born in Ver-
mont, in 1822, coming from honored New
England ancestry. In 1858 he became a
pioneer settler of Missouri, and an extensive
land owner for his times. Locating in LTnion
township, he boiight from the Government
nearly five hundred acres of land, paying
$1.25 an acre for the tract, and at once began
the pioneer labor redeeming a farm from the
wilderness. He met with success as a gen-
eral farmer, and in addition to tilling the soil
was engaged in business as a grocer, building
up an extensive and remunerative trade, which
he continued until his death, February 20,
1881. He married Elizabeth Stout, who was
born in Michigan, in 1810, and died in Union
township, Dunklin county, April 15, 1896.
Brought up on the parental homestead,
Edward Allen received his early education in
the district schools, and remained on the
home farm until twenty-five years of age,
assisting in its labors as a boj', and in its
management after the death of his father.
Starting in life on his own account, Mr. Allen
first purchased eighty acres of land now
included in his present estate, and has since
added by purchase seventy acres more, hav-
ing now title to one hundred and fifty acres
of rich and fertile land, all of which, with
the exception of ten acres, is cleared, and
divided into fields and pastures with wire
fencing. He is an exceedingly skilful agri-
culturist, having erected a substantial set of
buildings, and placed in an excellent state
of tillage, raising abundant crops each sea-
son of corn, potatoes and peas. Mr. Allen
also raises Hereford and Durham cattle, keep-
ing about thirty head; and has likewise
seventy Poland China hogs, and nine head
of horses and mules.
Mr. Allen married for his first wife, in 1886,
Mary E. Crawford. She died January 9,
1899, leaving three children, namely: Fred,
born in 1891 ; Iilyrtle, born in 1891 ; and Edith,
born in 1896. Mr. Allen married for his sec-
ond wife, !Mylissa Rennick. Politically Mr.
Allen uniformly casts his vote in favor of
the Democratic party. Religiously he is a
member of the ^Missionary Baptist church,
of which he was clerk for six years. Fi-ater-
nally he belongs to Pittsburg Lodge, No. 273,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Camp-
bell, in which he has passed all the chaii"s.
WiLLi.vM T. Bbackenridge, a recent resi-
dent of Maiden, has already shown his fellow
citizens that he is a man who is worthy of
their respect. They have not needed to
inquire as to his record before his advent
in Dunklin county, since his general demean-
or and actions during his so.journ in ^Maiden
have gained for him a cordial reception from
all who have come within the circle of his
sympathetic presence.
Mr. Brackenridge's birth occurred at Fort
"Wayne, Indiana, on the 3rd day of October,
1863. He is a son of Joseph Brackenridge,
914
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
a native of Indiana, the father born August
24, 1832, in the town of Brookville ; there he
was educated and engaged in the profession of
a lawyer. When a young man he moved to
Fort Wayne, Indiana, there met ]\Iiss Eliza
J. Taylor, whose nativity occurred at Cazeno-
via, New York, January 3, 1832, and the
acquaintance terminated in marriage in 1860.
Three children were born to this union, —
Edith, Robert and William T., all reared and
educated at Fort Wayne, and there the father
and mother resided until they were summoned
to their last rest. Judge Brackenridge died
]\Iay 30, 1891, and his widow survived him
fifteen years, her demise occurring on the
2nd day of June, 1906.
Mr. William T. Brackenridge attended the
public schools of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and
remained in that city until the month of Octo-
ber, 1910. After completing his schooling
he began studying law and was employed by
his father. In the year 1911 he incorporated
the Wayne Heading Company, one of the
largest manufacturers of barrel headings in
the country; it turns out twenty thousand
sets of barrel headings per week. ilr. Brack-
enridge is secretary and treasurer of this
concern, which was incorporated under the
name of The Hannah Brackenridge Company,
of Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose distributing
point is ]\Ialden. Since coming to Maiden
Mr. Brackenridge has purchased a section of
land and it is now all cleared. A big ditch
has been put through the property and the
land is rapidly rising in value.
On the 14th of October, 1894, Mr. Brack-
enridge was united in marriage to Miss
Catherine Schermerhorn of Delphi, Indiana,
and they are the parents of four children, — •
Joseph Hale, born July 12, 1897 ; Janet, whose
birth occurred July 5, 1902; William Taylor,
his father's namesake, whose nativity occurred
on the 26th day of July, 1904; and Reed
Case, born January 5, 1907. Mr. and Mrs.
Brackenridge are both members of the Epis-
copal church.
Jerry M. j\IcElvain. Of all the qualities
which are essential in order to ensure success
there is none more important than the ability
to stick to a thing, to surmount all obstacles,
to disregard all unpleasantness, to climb up
after falling down, to hope in spite of failure
— such has been the attitude of ^Ir. JMcElvain,
the stock dealer who is so well-known in
Caruthersville. There is no kind of a man
that UMturc liatrs so iiiuc'h as a quitter; with
men, as with horses, the supreme test of
mettle is the ability to stay in, and to give
the extra burst of power when it is required,
thus qualifying to start in another contest.
Mr. McElvain is a native son of the state
of Illinois, born in Hamilton county, that
state, August 3, 1866. He is a son of W. R.
and Minerva (Shelton) McElvain, born in
Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. Mr.
McElvain, Sr., followed the occupation of a
stock-raiser and dealer. He was not success-
ful in making much money and could not
give his children many educational advan-
tages. Jerry M., the sixth in order of birth
of the ten children born to his parents,
obtained such little education as he was able
to procure in his native county, and at the
age of about fourteen he left school and
started to battle for himself in the busy world.
He went into the stock business, but met with
one misfortune after another, difficulties that
would have discouraged most men ; he failed,
lost everything he possessed except a covered
wagon and a team of horses, but he simply
looked around for some other location in which
to make a fresh start. He came to Caruthers-
ville in the spring of 1899, arriving April
18th, in his covered wagon, traveling almost
like a gypsy, and without losing any time he
went to Tom Miles, an old liveryman, and
so impressed Mr. Miles that he gave the en-
terprising .young man a load of horses to sell
on a commission of fifty per cent. This was
Mr. McElvain 's fresh start in life and from
that time he has continued to make money in
the stock business and as a liveryman. In
twelve short years, beginning with a capital
of a covered wagon and a team of horses, he
has become the owner of the largest retail
business as a stock dealer between Memphis
and St. Louis, and his capital is more than
sixty-five thousand dollars.
On February 18, 1885, when only nineteen
years of age, Mr. IMcElvain was united in
marriage to Miss Margaret Adams, born in
1868, in Saline county, Illinois, where her
parents, John and Demarius (Boyd) Adams,
resided. Mr. and Mrs. McElvain had a
family of six children, whose names are as
follows: William, born April 9, 1886, who is
a recent graduate from the law department
of the University of ^Missouri and is now
practicing in Caruthersville ; Gilbert, de-
ceased; Cl.vde, who was graduated from the
Jackson, Missouri. Military School and is
married to Josephine Pierce, daughter of
Charles R. and Elizabeth Pierce, owners of
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
915
a farm near Caruthersville ; Ralph, who is
employed in the Famous Store Company;
ilinerva, the wife of D. B. Burnett, of Tip-
tonville, Tennessee ; and Jerry, who died in
infancy. Mrs. McElvain was with her hus-
band during his poverty and has remained
by his side during his prosperity — a help-
meet throughout. She is greatly interested in
the work of the ilethodist church of Caruth-
ersville. and is ever ready to lend her aid
to any branch of the religious activities of
the church.
ill-. jMcElvain is a loyal Democrat in po-
litical views, anxious at all times to do his
best in support of his party. He holds mem-
bership with the fraternal order of Eagles
and with the tribe of Red Men. Probably
because he was denied the privileges of a
liberal education himself, he has realized its
importance and he has given his children the
best educational training that he could find.
They are all doing credit to their training
and to their parents and are becoming men
and women of prominence in the world.
Louis Theilmann is one of the foremost
educators of Southeastern Missouri. As su-
perintendent of the Bonne Terre schools for
eight years his work has borne fruit in the
reputation for its fine schools, which is now
one of the best distinctions of Bonne Terre.
This city was one of the first in Southeastern
Missouri to introduce manual training as
part of its public school course. Throughout
his long career as an educator Professor
Theilmann has been an exponent of the prac-
tical in education, and was among the first in
the state to urge instruction in agriculture,
manual training and domestic science, as a
regular part of common-school work. While
advocating the modern and practical in pref
erence to the outgrown formulas of the past,
he also strives to make civic righteousness
the central principle of his plan of education.
Professor Theilmann was born in Hamilton
county, Ohio, April 27, 1862. His father.
John Theilmann, was born in Hesse-Darm
stadt, Germany. January 5, 1833, and re
ceived his early education in German schools.
He arrived in America on his twenty-first
birthday, and after working a number of
years in New York and Cincinnati he moved
to a farm in Northwest IMissouri in 1867.
His final years are being spent on his old
liomestead. He is one of the old-time hon-
est, industrious and thrifty farmers, and has
always enjoyed the respect and esteem of his
community. In politics he is a Republican,
and is a member of the Swedeuborgian
church. He married, in 1857, Miss Amelia
Fehleisen, a native of "Wurtemberg, Ger-
many. Education was one of her strongest
ideals, and she was willing to deny herself in
order that all her children, four sons and
two daughters, might receive adequate prep-
aration for life.
While growing up on the home farm Pro-
fessor Theilmann attended the country
schools of Caldwell county, and after leaving
the Kingston high school entered the ]Mis-
souri State University, where he graduated in
1885 with the degree of Bachelor of Science.
The degree of Master of Science was given
him by the university in 1890. During the
quarter of a century since leaving the Uni-
versity his work has been almost entirely in
the educational field. He was principal of
the Kingston schools one year, taught in
Clinton Academy one and a half years; in
1888, with his brother, G. A. Theilmann, or-
ganized the Appleton City Academy and was
connected therewith ten years, was principal'
of the Breckinridge schools three years, and
for the past eight j'ears has been superin-
tendent of the schools at Bonne Terre. He
is also part owner, with Mr. Wolpers. of the
Bonne Terre Register, Mr. Wolpers being
editor of that popular paper.
Professor Theilmann is Republican in pol-
itics, is a member of the Swedeuborgian
church, and alSliates with the Masonic and
Odd Fellows orders. He married, in 1898,
Miss Jessie M. Baugh, daughter of J. M.
Baugh, of Appleton City, Missouri. They
have three children: Gertrude, Wallace and
Giles.
James D. Brandon. One of the prosper-
ous and extensive farmers in the vicinity of
Clarkton, Dunklin county, was the late James
D. Brandon, who owned a valuable property,
and whose operations included general farm-
ing, stock-raising and cotton-growing. He
was born in Livingston county, Kentucky,
May 10, 1867, his parents being John A. R.
and Fredonia (Burgess) Brandon. His
decease occurred July 28, 1911. The father
was a farmer and mechanic in the Bluegrass
state and owned one hundred and fourteen
acres near Smithland, Livingston county,
Kentuclrv% where he successfully raised to-
bacco. When the subject was of tender yeai-s
the little family removed to Henry county in
the western part of Tennessee and there they
916
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
resided for about eight years. In 1879, they
made another change of residence to Clay
county, Arkansas, where the father bought
four hundred and eighty acres of land. John
A. R. Brandon was the father of a number
of sons and daughters. The eldest was John
A. Jr., who came into Dunklin couuty m 1891.
He located in the southwestern part of Free-
man township, where for sevei-al years he
worked upon a farm. His marriage to Miss
Alice Reeves occurred December 23, 1894.
He gradually acquired property, in 1899 buy-
ing eighty acres ; in 1902, forty acres ; in 1907,
nmety acres and a little later thirty, the lat-
ter purchased from J. W. Swobey. He was
unfortunate in losing a great number of
hogs in the cholera epidemic in 1910. He is
the father of six children, namely: James, a
pupil in the fifth grade ; Everett, in the third ;
Liola, Clarence, Ruby and Audrey, who have
not jet attained to school-going age. John
A. lirandon Jr. was a student at Campbell
high school and was a teacher in the county
for several years, teaching three years at Prov-
idence, and one year at Lentz. He is engaged
for the coming year at Pee Dee and expects
to continue as an instructor, a work for which
he is well qualified. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, of the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and the Domestic Workers,
of which latter order he is secretary. Mrs.
Brandon is a member of the General Baptist
church of Mount Gideon.
JMelissa, second child of John A. Brandon,
Sr., became the wife of J. R. Rice, a farmer
residing on the Saint Francois river. At his
death, some fifteen years ago she married Mr.
David Jones, a farmer of this county. She
died in 1898, leaving one child, Alice, who
first married a Mr. Lot of Kentucky and at
his death married a Mr. Harris. She has
four children — Eliza, Hattie, George and
Jlay. Minnie Rowton, third of John Bran-
don's children, is now deceased.
James D. Brandon, the third child of the
family and immediate subject of this review,
left his native Kentucky when a child and
the changes of residence of his parents divided
his early years between Henry county, Ten-
nessee, and Arkansas. He eventually found
his way to Missouri and began working for
the father of James Kitchen in 1885 and con-
tinued in his employ for about one year. He
then was engaged by other farmers and in
1890 he made a start toward independence by
purchasing from his father-in-law, H. G. Hall,
eighty acres of land. In 1903 he bought
forty acres more of Judge Scobey's son J.
W. Seobey, and in 1908 bought an additional
one hundred and twenty acres of the Seobey
land from Judge L. H. Seobey. In 1897 he
sold sixty acres to H. G. Hall.
Mr. Brandon was united in the holy bonds
of matrimony to Margaret R. Hall, daughter
of H. G. and Mary (Baysinger) Hall, of
Dunklin county. They became the parents of
five children, three of whom are living. One
died in early infancy and a little daughter,
Tennie Elizabeth, succumbed at the age of
two years to chills and fever. Mary, the
eldest daughter, married W. S. Sanders,
farmer of Dunklin county and their two
children died at an early age. Mr. Sanders
owns a farm not far from the homestead of
Mr. Brandon. Lula married L. H. Shepard,
a farmer living in the vicinity of Sanders,
and they have an infant son. Homer, while a
daughter Hazel, died in infancy. Mattie,
became the wife of Joseph Ferguson an agri-
culturist in this section and they have an
infant daughter. Opal. Mr. Brandon also had
a little daughter, Alice, by his last marriage.
The first Mrs. Brandon died in 1896 and
after her demise the subject married Tennie
ilcFarland, a daughter of one of the old fami-
lies here, but she lived for only a short time.
In 1905, Mr. Brandon married a third time,
Ida ]\Iay Netts, daughter of J. P. Netts, who
was reared in this county, becoming his wife.
She died in 1907. Mr. Brandon then took
as his wife Nora Lentz, daughter of Eli and
Sarah (Norman) Lentz and had one child,
Alice, w4io is about eighteen months of age.
Mr. Brandon was a successful farmer and
left a well-improved property, all but sixty
acres of which is well-cleared and under cul-
tivation. He raised cotton and every year
had excellent crops. His estate now consists
of about three hundred and twenty acres.
He was a consistent member of the Metho-
dist Protestant church, in which he held the
office of trustee. His widow is a Baptist.
The subject was a Republican in his political
conviction and took a public-spirited interest
in all the aft'airs of the community. He was
a very popular lodge man, having belonged to
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at
Campbell, Missouri ; and at Maiden was affi-
liated with the Modern Woodmen, the Modern
Brotherhood and the Woodmen of the World,
while he was also connected with the Domes-
tic Workers at Pee Dee.
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nSSOURl
91^
William Bredensteineb. To the people
of Maiden the name of William Bredensteiner
immediately suggests a picture of appetizing
bakery commodities, neatly and tastefully
arranged. As a general thing foods that are
especially palatable are not particularly
wholesome, but that is not the case with Mr.
Bredensteiner 's products, which are prepared
under sanitary conditions and at the same
time they satisfy the cravings of hunger. Mr.
Bredensteiner is both a popular and a suc-
cessful business man, and is such not by acci-
dent but by virtue of industry, honor and a
thorough knowledge of his specialty.
The birth of William Bredensteiner oc-
curred on the 29th day of September, 1864, in
the kingdom of Hanover, now a province of
Prussia, Germany. His parents, Fred and
Mary (Buchsick) Bredensteiner, were both
life-long residents of the same German king-
dom where the mother 's birth occuiTcd in 1831
and the father's in 1815. They reared a
family of five children, — Mary, Karl, Anna,
William and Ernest (twins). Father Bre-
densteiner fought in the war of the French
Revolution, and was an actor in the terrible
scenes which were common during that con-
flict. As a civilian he was engaged in the
occupation of a farmer, and he lived to the
good old age of eighty-four years, his death
occurring in 1899. His widow survived him
six years, she being summoned to her last
rest in 1905, at the age of seventy-four.
William Bredensteiner entered school
when he was six years old and his educational
training continued until his fourteenth year;
during his eight years of schooling, obtained
in the public institutions of his native town,
he gained a good, general education, and on
its termination he commenced to learn the
bakery trade at the quaint town of Bremen
on the Weser, as the apprentice of one of the
master bakers of that town. By the time he
had served his apprenticeship he had become
an adept at his trade and for six months he
worked as a baker in his native kingdom, but
believed that he could do better in the United
States. On the 5th day of October, 1882,
therefore, he landed at Baltimore, Maryland,
and went direct to Cincinnati, Ohio, where
'■'s sister jMary resided. She had married
Fred Drees, a baker in that city. Mr. Bre-
densteiner worked for I\Ir. Henry Kassen, a
baker, for five years. Then followed a period
of wandering on the part of Mr. Breden-
steiner; for a year he worked in Paris, Ken-
tucky, then six weeks in Louisville, Kentucky,
then two years and a half at St. Louis, Mis-
souri, where he worked partly at night and
partly by day. Following his St. Louis experi-
ence he came to New Madrid county, Alissouri,
where for five years he was employed in
Henry Jasper's bakery at New Madrid. Next
he worked one year at Murphysboro, Illinois,
then one year at Harriman, Tennessee. In
1898 he came to Maiden and for five years he
was the head baker of Al. S. Davis. During
all these years of change of scene and oJ:
employers Mr. Bredensteiner had accumulated
a little money, as well as considerable experi-
ence of conditions in different parts of the
country, and on the first of March, 1903, tired
of working for others any longer, he bought
out Mr. Davis' bakery and commenced to do
business for himself. Scarcely more than
two months later (May 25, 1903) a fire swept
away the buildings on Madison street, where
ilr. Bredensteiner 's bakery was located, and
his store was entirely demolished. On the
11th of February, 1904, he moved to the loca-
tion where his store is today (the corner of
Madison and Beckwith) and re-commenced to
build up a trade. His patronage is now as
good if not better than that of any other
bakery in the county. In 1906 he put in a
line of groceries with his bakery goods and
now has a fine, up-to-date establishment.
jMr. Bredensteiner was married to Miss
Eliza Cook, September 22, 1894. Miss Cook
was a native of Bloomfield, Missouri, and is
the daughter of Nathaniel and Anna Cook.
Mr. and Mrs. Bredensteiner are the parents
of three children, all of whom are attending
the public school in Maiden and whose names
are as follows: Doi'othy, born August 14,
1896; Walter, whose birth occurred January
9, 1901 ; and Albert, the date of whose nativity
is March 17, 1903.
Mr. Bredensteiner has always been deeply
interested in the politics of his adopted coun-
try, and in the Republican party he believes
he sees the best principles of good govern-
ment; he, therefore, is a strong Republican,
although he keeps out of politics himself. In
religious belief he holds to the Lutheran
creed — the doctrine in which he was trained.
In a fraternal way he is widely connected;
he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of
America, with the Maccabees, with the
Knights of Pythias, with the Masons (being
a member of the Council No. 46, Royal and
Select Masters; of Chapter No. 117, Roj'al
Arch Masons; and of Commandery No. 61,
Knights Templars), and with the Benevolent
918
HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and Protective Order of Elks. His stand-
ing with tliis last mentioned order has been
of a high and important nature, as is indi-
cated by the fact that he dedicated the Elk
hall at Cape Girardeau. Personally Mr.
Bredensteiner is a man of pleasing demeanor
and his views of life and attitude towards
people in general are characteristic of a
broad-minded man who has traveled as exten-
sively as did Mr. Bredensteiner.
J. S. N. Faequhar. Especially worthy of
representation in this biographical volume is
J. S. N. Farquhar, of Caruthersville, who
through his own enterprise, worth and ability
has risen to a commanding position in the
lumber trade of Southeast Missouri, and is
actively identified with the advancement of
other industrial enterprises. A native of Mis-
souri, he was born in 1881, in jMadison county,
a son of David and Sarah Ann (Graham)
Farquhar, the latter of whom was born and
reared in the same county, the former in
Scotland.
Completing his early education at the Mar-
vin Collegiate Institute, in Frederiektown,
^Missouri, J. S. N. Farquhar taught school for
a year, and in 1903 was graduated from
Draughon's Practical Business College, at
Saint Louis. Going then to Arkansas, he
had charge of a lumber yard until ill health
compelled him to resign his position and
return home. He married soon afterward,
and for a few months succeeding that impor-
tant event in his life was bookkeeper, at
Marianna, Arkansas, for the L'Anguille Lum-
ber Company. Locating at Caruthersville,
Pemiscot county, Missouri, May 2, 1904, Mr.
Farquhar assumed charge of the yards of the
Riverside Lumber Company, and has since
been instnimental in building up a large and
lucrative trade for his employers. He is
amply qualified for the position, being keen
and alert to take advantage of opportunities,
and broad and bright enough to handle all
of the business that comes in his way. The
Riverside Lumber Company was organized in
1900, and is carrying on a substantial busi-
ness. Mr. Farquhar is likewise connected
with various other important enterprises,
being a stockholder and the president of the
Home Lumber and Shingle Manufacturing
Company, which was organized March 11,
1911, and is a stockholder in the Whitener
Jewelry Company, the Argus Publishing
Company and the Twentieth Century Pub-
lishing Company of Saint Louis.
On March 27, 1904, Mr. Farquhar was
united in marriage with Gertrude M. E. Twid-
well, who was born in Wayne county, Mis-
souri, July 25, 1882, and they have two chil-
dren, namely: Angella Conchita, born Janu-
ary 7, 1907 ; and Bonnie Marie, born Febru-
ary 14, 1909. Mr. Farquhar is an active mem-
ber of the Caruthersville branch of the
Mutual Protective League, and since its
organization, in 1907, has sei'ved as its secre-
tary. He likewise belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America, and has held all of the
officers in the local camp. Both ilr. and Mrs.
Farquhar are prominent members of the Bap-
tist church, in which he is a deacon, the
church clerk and a teacher in its Sunday-
school.
Ambrose Davis Bridges. A venerable and
highly respected citizen of Campbell, Dunk-
lin county, Ambrose D. Bridges has been a
resident of this part of the state for upwards
of sixty-six years, and in that time has wit-
nessed many wonderful transformations in
the county, the wild land being converted into
fields rich with grain, the log cabins of the
pioneers being replaced by commodious frame
houses, while the hamlets of the early times
have developed into thriving villages and
populous towns and cities. In this grand
change Mr. Bridges has- contributed his full
share of the pioneer labor, and can now look
back with pride and pleasure upon his work.
A native of Kentucky, he was born, January
10, 1823, in Mercer county, a son of William
and Nancy (Davis) Bridges, the former of
whom died in Campbell, Missouri, in June,
1846, and the latter died about 1838.
Reared and educated in Kentucky, Ambrose
D. Bridges came to Missouri soon after attain-
ing his majority, and on January 18, 1844,
located in the woods near the St. Francois
River near what is now Campbell, where he
pui-sued his favorite occupations, farming and
hunting. No land south of township twenty-
two had then been surveyed, but he took up a
tract of forty acres, which, as soon as it was
surveyed, he purchased. This was then a part
of Stoddard county which then extended
north to Whitewater sixteen miles southwest
of Cape Girardeau. With true pioneer grit,
he began the improvement of a homestead,
and as a farmer met with eminent success.
As his means increased, he wisely invested it
in other tracts of land, in course of time
acquiring title to two thousand acres of rich
and valuable land, thirteen hundred of which
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
919
he still owns, the remainder having been
deeded to his children. In addition to carry-
ing on general farming with good results Mr.
Bridges has devoted much attention to the
raising of hogs and horses, and for a quarter
of a century operated a saw mill. His farm
is finely improved, and amply supplied with
all the accessories required by a modern and
successful agriculturist.
Since taking up his residence near Camp-
bell, he has resided at his present home since
his marriage in 1845. Jlr. Bridges has taken
an intelligent interest in everything pertain-
ing to the welfare of town and county, and
had the honor of being called to sit upon the
first grand jury convened in Dunklin county.
Diiring the Civil war, he served as lieutenant
in Captain Leander Taj'lor's company, Col.
James Walker's regiment, for a year, and
after his return home, while running his saw
mill he had frequent troubles with the guer-
rillas, which then infested the country at
times. He is identified with one of the lead-
ing financial institutions of his community,
having been a director of the Bank of Camp-
bell since its organization.
Mr. Bridges married, February 24, 1845,
Charlotte Russell, who was born January 13,
1829, in Hickman county, Kentucky', and died
at the home near Campbell, ilissouri, in 1896.
Fourteen children were born into the pleasant
home of Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, namely : Eliza-
beth, deceased, who married Jasper Beasley;
Minerva, a widow, living in Campbell ; Wil-
liam, of Campbell, of whom a brief notice
appears elsewhere in this work; John, James,
Ellen, and Perry E., all deceased; Eliza, wife
of Lee J. Taylor, of whom a short sketch
may be found on another page of this volume ;
Sarah Ann, wife of Frank Bristol, an
employee in a mill at Campbell; Lucy, wife
of G. AV. McCutchen; Josephine, wife of
Thomas ]\Iedley ; and Lottie and Daniel, twins,
who died in infancy and Marion D., deceased.
Politically ilr. Bridges is a stanch adherent
of the Democratic party. Fraternally he is a
member of Four Mile Lodge, No. 212, A, F. &
A. M., of Campbell; of Kennett Chapter, R.
A. M., which he organized; and of Campbell
Council, No. 33, R. & S. M.. of Campbell. He
is also a member of the Order of the Eastern
Star of Campbell.
Levi ^Mercantile Company. At this .junc-
ture attention is directed to a brief history
of one of the leading department stores in
Southeastern Missouri. The Levi [Mercantile
Company was incorporated under the laws of
the state of Missouri in 1889, with a capital
stock of twenty-five thousand dollars and it
is officered as follows: J. D. Goldman, St.
Louis, president ; J. N. Arends, vice-president ;
A. Lebermuth, secretary and treasurer; and
A. Lebermuth and J. N. Arends, general man-
agers. This concern, the business of which
has now reached very large proportions, was
originally J. S. Levi & Company, which was
founded by J. S. Levi and J. D. Goldman, at
i\Ialden, Missouri, in the year 1878. At that
early day J. S. Levi was resident manager
and the other partner, J. D. Goldman, main-
tained his home in the city of St. Louis, the
two men having formerly been associated in
a number of important business enterprises at
Dexter, Missouri. Closely connected with the
Levi Mercantile Company is the Goldman-
Levi Land Company, which was incorporated
in 1889 and which controls considerable valu-
able real estate in this section of Southeastern
[Missouri. Mr. Levi lives at Kokomo, Indiana,
whither he removed in 1889 and where he is
engaged in the dry goods business, and Mr.
Goldman is still in St. Louis, where he is also
a member of the Lesser-Goldman Cotton Com-
pany . The Goldman-Levi Land Company
owns a great deal of city and country realty
at and near Maiden and the Mercantile Com-
pany is its local representative. The Levi
Mercantile Company occupies two floors, fifty
by one hundred feet each in lateral dimen-
sions, and it also owns a store room, twenty-
five by one hundred feet. It is a modern and
well equipped department store, its stock in-
cluding a complete line of dry goods, cloth-
ing, furniture, hardware and agricultural im-
plements, in addition to which it also is a
large buyer of cotton, handling upwards of
twenty-two hundred bales per annum of the
latter commodity. This business enterprise
is constantly increasing the scope of its opera-
tions and it caters to a very cosmopolitan
trade.
Adolph Lebermuth, one of the general man-
agers of the Levi Mercantile Company, was
born in Bavaria, on the 19th of September,
1855, and he is a son of David and Jeannette
Lebermuth, both natives of Bavaria. He
received his preliminary educational training
in the public schools of his native place and
in 1885 he came to Slalden, to accept a posi-
tion as bookkeeper for J. S. Levi & Com-
pany. He continued in the employ of that
concern, in the capacity of bookkeeper, up
to 1889, when the company was incorporated
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and he was installed as one of the general
managers, in co-partnership with J. N.
Arends. ilr. Arends is a native of Germany,
where his birth occurred on the 6th of Janu-
ary, 1854. He is a son of John N. and Mary
T. Arends and after completing the curri-
culum of the Christian Brothers school of
Jlobile. Alabama, he, as a young man, turned
his attention to the mercantile business. In
1879 he entered the employ of Messrs. Levi
and Goldman at Dexter, Missouri, coming
with Jlr. Levi to Maiden when the firm of
J. S. Levi & Company was formed. While at
Dexter he was salesman and cotton buyer
and since 1889 he has been joint manager of
the Levi Mercantile Company. Under the
able management and guidance of Messrs.
Lebermuth and Arends the business of this
concern has increased to a remarkable extent.
They are both possessed of executive ability
and energy and as citizens their interest in
the general welfare has ever been of the most
loyal and public-spirited order. In politics
they are uncompromising advocates of the
principles and policies promulgated by the
Democratic party and in fraternal circles
they are affiliated with a number of represent-
ative organizations of a local character.
Prank D. Roberts. Noteworthy among
the talented and accomplished men who have
graced the bar of Southeast Missouri is
Frank D. Roberts, of Caruthersville, who has
served as prosecuting attorney both of his
home city and of Pemiscot county, and has
likewise represented his district in the Mis-
souri State Legislature. A native of Ten-
nessee, he was born December 25, 1855, in
Dyersburg, coming from a well-known and
highly respected family.
His father, the late John Roberts, was for
many years actively engaged in business at
Dyersburg, Tennessee, owning a large store
and also a cotton gin, both of which he oper-
ated successfully, continuing there until his
death, in the latter '70s. To him and his
wife, whose maiden name was Mary Davis,
four children were born, namely: Frank D.,
with whom this brief sketch is chiefly con-
cerned ; William D., of Memphis, Tennessee,
an extensive cotton dealer, owning gins in
^Memphis and in other places; Joseph, for
many years engaged in the livery business in
Dyersburg, Tennessee, died, in 1883, at Daw-
son Springs, Tennessee ; and Robert Lee, who
was engaged in the cotton business with his
brother William, died in Portageville, Mis-
souri, in 1905.
Ambitious as a youth to enter upon a pro-
fessional career, Frank D. Roberts began the
study of law in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1880
he located in Pemiscot county, ilissouri, and
having been admitted to the bar at Gayoso,
the old county seat, he there began the prac-
tice of his profession. In 1889 he opened a
law office at Caruthersville, where he has
since resided. A man of strong personality,
possessing much force of character and reso-
lution of purpose, Mr. Roberts, as natural to
one of his mental calibre, soon became active
in public affairs, serving as mayor of Caruth-
ersville and representing his county in the
State Legislature. He did much to advance
the cause of education in Southeast Missouri,
and for a while was school commissioner. For
nearly six years after coming to Caruthers-
ville he was connected with the mercantile
establishment of Cunningham Brothers, dur-
ing which time he invested in land. He has
since bought many other tracts, and is now
an extensive owner of realty, having title to
much valuable land in Pemiscot county.
On December 21, 1882, Mr. Roberts was
united in marriage with Sallie M. Cunning-
ham, a daughter of Frank and Mary E.
(Johnson) Cunningham, the former of whom
died in Caruthersville, January 16. 1892,
while the latter is a resident of this city. Mrs.
Koberts has four brothers in Caruthersville,
all of whom are large landholders and mem-
bers of the old and reliable mercantile firm
of Cunningham Brothers, as follows: John
A., Charles L., Frank J. and Kent H. Six
children have blessed the union of Mr. and
Mrs. Roberts, namely : Grace E., who married
Clellan Tindle, cashier of the Pemiscot Coun-
ty Bank, has four children, all sons; ]\Iary
E., wife of Arthur E. Oliver, a rising young
attorney of Caruthersville, has one child, John
R. Oliver; Nell C, was graduated from the
Caruthersville High School, subsequently
studied one year in Saint Louis, and gradu-
ated at Dr. Mary Law's School in Toledo,
Ohio, and is now teaching in a kindergarten
school in Chicago; Ernestine, who completed
the course of study at a school for physical
culture in Battle Creek, Michigan, is now
residing at Chicago ; and Floyd B. and Frank
Jr.. are both pupils in the Caruthersville
High School.
Fraternally Mr. Roberts is a member of
the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of
^.^
^
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
921
Masons and of the Knights of Pj^thias. He
formerly belonged to CaruthersviUe Lodge,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a
member until the disbandment of the lodge.
He is a member of the Presbj^terian church,
to which his wife and children also belong.
]Mr. Roberts retired from the active prac-
tice of his profession in 1904, since which
time he has devoted attention to his other ex-
tensive interests.
Moses Wopford. The world instinctively
pays deference to the man whose success has
been worthily achieved and whose promi-
nence is not the less the result of an irre-
proachable life than of natural talents and
unusual energy exerted along the line of
his chosen field of work. Among the great
captains of industry in southeastern Mis-
souri Moses "Wofford holds prestige as a
citizen and business man whose success has
been on a parity with his own well directed
endeavors. In addition to owning consider-
able valuable property in this section of the
state he is president of the Dunklin County
Bank, is treasurer and general manager of
the Allen Store Company, at Maiden, and
is vice-president of the Senter Commission
Company, of St. Louis.
A native of the fine old commonwealth of
Georgia, iloses "\Yofford was born in For-
syth county, that state, the date of his na-
tivity being the 20th of April, 1850. He is
a son of John P. and Mary (Cunningham)
Wofford, both of whom are now deceased.
The father was identified with farming dur-
ing his active career, and he died in 1885,
at the age of sixty-nine years. The mother
died in 1856, aged thirty-five years, and left
seven children. The father married the
second time, wedding Mary Wofford, and
they had five children, one of whom is liv-
ing. Mrs. Wofford died at about thirty-five
years of age, in 1865. Mr. Wofford and his
first wife became the parents of seven chil-
dren, of whom the subject of this review
was the fifth in order of birth, and two of
whom are living in 1911. Moses Wofford
passed his boyhood and youth in his native
state of Georgia and his preliminary educa-
tional training consisted of such advantages
as were afforded in the schools of the stren-
uous war times. When seventeen years of
age, he removed to western Tennessee and
thence to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1879. For
a short time he maintained his home in Ar-
kansas, representing the northern part of
that state and southeastern Missouri in the
cotton market for the Senter Commission
Company. This was in 1881, and he has
been with them ever since.
Closes Wofford established his home at
JIalden, Missouri, in 1898, and here he has
since continued to reside. The Allen Store
Company, of which he is treasurer and gen-
eral manager, was incorporated under the
laws of the state in 1892, R. H. Allen,
having been the original general manager,
Mv. Allen was succeeded, in 1898, by Mr.
Wofford as manager. This corporation has
a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars
and the excess including the capital as-
sets amounts to forty-five thousand dollars.
In addition the Company owns a fine store
building, forty-five by one hundred feet in
lateral dimensions, with four store rooms,
twenty by forty-five feet, opening on Mad-
ison street. The annual sales of the concern
amoimt to from fifty-two thousand to fifty-
five thousand dollars annually and the cot-
ton end of the business amounts to from two
hundred to five hundred bales annually.
The Allen Store Company is practically a
country department store, complete in
equipment and strictly modern in all its
appointments. For thirt.y years Closes Wof-
ford has traveled in southeastern Missouri for
the Senter Commission Company, of St.
Louis, of which important concern he is now
the efficient incumbent of the office of vice-
president. This concern is a general com-
mission house, with cotton as its principal
line. Mr. Wofford is also interested in the
Dunklin County Bank at Maiden, of which
substantial monetary institution he is presi-
dent. This bank is incorporated with a cap-
ital stock of twenty thousand dollars and
is officered as follows: Moses Wofford,
president; Henry Anderson, vice-president;
and W. J. Davis, cashier. Mr. Wofford
in his various business dealings is a man of
keen foresight and of shrewd discernment,
and inasmuch as his present high position in
the business world of southeastern Missouri is
the direct outcome of his own well applied ef-
forts, his admirable success is the more grat-
ifying to contemplate.
In his political convictions Mr. Wofford
is a stalwart supporter of the principles and
policies for which the Democratic party
stands sponsor, and while he has never been
an office seeker he is a willing contributor
to all matters pro.jected for progress and
improvement. He has served as a member
922
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
of the Maiden school board and in his re-
ligious faith is a consistent member of the
Missionary Baptist church at Maiden. In
the time-honored Masonic order he has
passed through the circle of the York Rite
branch, being past worshipful master of
Blue Lodge, of the Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Llasons; and past eminent com-
mander of Maiden Commandery, No. 61, of
the Knights Templars, ilalden, and a mem-
ber of the Scottish Rite at Little Rock,
Arkansas.
ilr. Woiford married first Emma Wade,
a native of Trenton, Tennessee, where she
was reared, and she died in 1885, when
about twenty-five years of age. His second
marriage was to Birdie Hilton, at Judsonia,
Arkansas, where she was born and reared, a
daughter of George and Cassie (Key) Hilton.
They have two children: Irene, ten years of
age, and Charles Hilton , an infant. Mrs.
Woff'ord is also a member of the Missionary
Baptist church.
Walter M. Hdbbaed. The city of Clark-
ton, Missouri, is particularly fortunate in its
type of clean-cut, straightforward business
men, whose contribution to progress and de-
velopment has ever been of the most insistent
order. One of its foremost citizens is Walter
M. Hubbard, who conducts a large and thriv-
ing general merchandise business on jAFain
street. His establishment is wonderfully well
equipped and caters to a large trade in Clark-
ton and the country normally tributary
thereto.
Walter M. Hubbard was born at Clarkton,
]\Iissouri, the date of his nativity being the
9th of September, 1872. He is a son of
Michael W. and Elizabeth D. Hubbard, the
former of whom was called to eternal rest on
the 10th of ilay, 1900, and the latter is now
living with her sons. The father was a native
of Madison county, Kentucky, whence he came
to Missouri, settling in Clarkton at about the
time of the inception of the Civil war. The
mother was born in Smith county. Tennessee,
and she is a daughter of R. L, Hodges, who
came to Missouri in the ante-bellum days and
who was at one time judge of Dunklin county.
M. W. Hubbard was a farmer and merchant
by occupation, at one time owning a farm of
one hundred and sixty acres near Clarkton
and conducting a .store in this place for about
twenty years. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard be-
came the parents of four children, concern-
ing whom the following brief record is here
inserted, — Robert G. is the owner of a farm
of one hundred and twenty acres of land
south of Clarkton: he is mentioned on other
pages of this work; Charles T. is likewise a
farmer by vocation and a sketch of his career
appears elsewhere in this compilation; Mollie
is the wife of B. P. Jarman, who owns a
farm west of Clarkton and they have two
sons, Frank and Robert ; and Walter M. is the
immediate subject of this review.
To the public schools of Clarkton Walter
M. Hubbard is indebted for his preliminary
educational training and as a youth he be-
came associated with his father in the work
and management of the latter 's store. He
came into full possession of the store in 1908.
This general merchandise business was begun
by M. W. Hubbard in 1883, the original busi-
ness occupying a store forty feet deep with
a twenty-foot frontage. Subsequently ten
feet were added to the side and twenty feet
to the back of the store. At the present time,
in 1911, the store has a frontage of one hun-
dred and sixteen feet, a portion of which is
forty feet deep, the rest being sixty feet deep.
For two years, 1906-7, Robert G. Hubbard
was associated with Walter AI. of this review
in the conduct of this mercantile concern.
Mr. Hubbard now conducts it alone, however,
and he is achieving an unusual success, the
same being the direct result of his own well
applied endeavors. In addition to his other
extensive interests at Clarkton Mr. Hubbard
is a heavy stockholder in the Farmers' Bank
of which substantial financial institution lie is
vice-president. In politics he is aligned as
a stanch advocate of the principles and
policies for which the Democratic party-
stands sponsor and in a fraternal way he is
a valued and appreciative member of the
Modern Woodmen of America. In religious
faith Mrs. Hubbard is a member of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian church, in the various
departments of whose work she is active.
On the 14th of February, 1894, Mr. Hub-
bard was united in marriage to Miss Maggie
L. Young, who was reared and educated at
Portageville, Missouri, and who is a daugh-
ter of John Young and Phyllis (Delisle)
Young. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard are the par-
ents of four children — three boys and one
girl, all of whom are attending school at
Clarkton. Paul S. was born in 1895; Carl
in 1899; Loomis G., in 1901; and Jessie A.
in 1903.
While Mr. Hubbard has not been without
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
923
that honorable ambition which is so powerful
and useful as an incentive to activity in pub-
lic affairs, he regards the pursuits of private
life as being in themselves abundantly worthy
of his best efforts. In community affairs he
is active and influential and his support is
readil.v and generously given to many meas-
ures for the general progress and improve-
ment.
Thomas B. Kent, of the Allen Store Com-
pany of Maiden, is one of the prosperous
members of the communitj' in which he re-
sides. Having been actively engaged in the
mercantile business almost a quarter of a
century, it is natural that he should be con-
sidered a first-rate business man; indeed
there is very little in connection with the
conduct of a store that Mr. Kent does not
know. It is a fine thing for a man to be mas-
ter of his own business and a still finer for
him to strictly attend to it, and it is this last
characteristic that has to a large extent de-
termined the success of Mr. Kent.
ilr. Kent, born on the 5th day of May, 1866,
at Des Arc, Arkansas, is the son of Thomas
B. Kent, Sr., and Mary E. (Harris) Kent.
The father was a 
