USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 16
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One of the greatest interests in the life of General Pavey was in the various associations of the Veterans of the Civil war. It was one of his great pleasures to meet his old comrades and talk over the days they had fought side by side. Not content with his loyalty, he served his old associates in many exeentive positions. He was inevitably a member of the Grand Army of the Republie post, and for twelve years he was
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president of the Illinois State Prisoners of War Associations. The high- est honor that came to him in this line was one that he held at the time of his death, namely, commander of the Southern Ilinois Soldiers and Sailors Reunion Association. This is the largest reunion association in the United States, and the enthusiasm which was shown at their yearly meetings was due in no small measure to the influence of their presiding officer. During General Pavey's term as anditor he had the additional responsibility of being a member of the Examining Board of the com- mission governing the United States Mint at Philadelphia. His title of "general" came to him through his appointment by Governor C'nllom of Illinois as brigadier general of the State Militia.
General Pavey married Isabella Frances Pace, a daughter of Joel Pace, Jr., one of the first settlers in Jefferson county. She comes of a line of soldiers, for her father was in the war of 1812 and her grand- father. Joel Pace, fought through the American Revolution. Mrs. Pavey is still living in Mount Vernon, at the old Pace homestead, which formerly embraced fifty acres, now within the city limits. The children of this marriage numbered five. Eugene M. is living at Aurora, Illinois, hold- ing the position of Illinois superintendent of agencies for the Federal Life Insurance Company of Chicago. Louis G. is seeond in age. Neil P. is in San Francisco, as representative of the Army and Navy Supply Company of New York. He was captain of the local militia and during the Spanish-American war served in Cuba. After the evacuation he enlisted in the Thirtieth Provisional Regiment, being mustered in at Jefferson Barraeks as a lieutenant. He served in the Philippines and was made commissary of his regiment. Soon afterwards he was ap- pointed chief commissary on the staff of Major General Bates. He later had an opportunity to go to Japan as a military instructor, but pre- ferred to return home. Ile has traveled extensively, particularly in the Central America and South American States, and has shown himself to be his father's own son. Mabel S. is the eldest daughter and lives at home with her mother. Alice is the wife of John B. Emerson of St. Louis, he being manager of the Robert W. Hunt and Company, a firm of eivil engineers and contractors. The well beloved father of this family died at Mount Vernon on the 15th of May, 1910.
Lonis G. Pavey was born on the 19th of October. 1868, at Mount Vernon, Ilinois. He received his education in the public schools and in the high schools of his home town, and then attended the University of Illinois. He left his books to assist his father in making his canvass for state anditor, acting as his secretary. On the election of his father to the above position he was appointed warrant elerk, his duties being to audit the warrants and checks drawn upon the state treasury. At the close of his service in the anditor's office he went to Rockford. Ilinois, where he was employed by the Emerson-Taleott Company, a large man- nfaeturing concern. In association with the Emersons he went from Rockford to St. Paul, where they purchased a large creamery plant, operating it for one year. Mr. Pavey sold out in 1896 and came to Chicago, to enter the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. He remained here till June, 1899, the experience which he gained being invaluable. then he came to Mount Vernon and accepted the position of enshier of the Ham National Bank.
This institution is the oldest bank in the county, having been organ- ized under the name of Carlin, Cross and Company, in 1869 It was soon reorganized as the Mount Vernon National Bank, with Noah John- ston as president and C. D. Ham as cashier. In this guise it existed for seven or eight years and then was conducted as a private bank until 1897 by C. D. Ham and Company. Jerry Taylor being president and (.
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D. Ham, cashier. At this time it was rechartered and reorganized as the Ham National Bank, having as president C. D. Ham, and as cashier, Rufus Grant. About 1903 Mr. Grant retired as cashier and Mr. Pavey was elected to succeed him. Mr. C. D. Ham died in 1899 and Albert Watson was made his successor. The present officers of the bank are: Albert Watson, president ; S. B. Ham, vice president; Louis G. Pavey, cashier ; C. R. Keller and J. W. Gibson, assistant cashiers. The bank was first capitalized at fifty thousand dollars, which was inereased in 1905 to one hundred thousand dollars. The institution has a surplus of fifty thousand dollars.
Mr. Pavey is a director of the following banks: The First National Bank of Sesser; The Farmer's Bank of Waltonville; The Ina Bank of Ina, Illinois : Bank of Bonnie. Bonnie, Illinois; The Security Bank of Opdyke, Illinois; The Peoples Bank of Bluford, Illinois; The Farmer's and Merchants Bank of Dix, Illinois; The Bank of Divide, at Divide. Illinois. He is also president of the People's Bank of Bluford, Illinois. and is a member of the firm of Hobbs and Pavey Dry Goods Company of Mount Vernon. This long array of responsible positions which Mr. Pavey holds speak for themselves. There is no need to call attention to his financial ability or his personal integrity.
General Pavey was a member and trustee of the First Methodist ehureh of Mount Vernon, also being one of the trustees. His son has followed closely in his father's steps, being likewise a member and stew- ard in the same ehureh. The father was interested in the fraternal or- ganizations to the extent of being an Odd Fellow, but the son has no fraternal affiliations. Louis G. Pavey was married in November, 1901, to Martha Ham, daughter of C. D. Ham, with whom he was so closely associated in a business way.
HON. GEORGE PARSONS. A modest, unassuming man, possessing un- doubted business ability and judgment, Hon. George Parsons, now serv- ing his fourth term as mayor of Cairo, is numbered among the repre- sentative eitizens of Southern Illinois. The seventh ehild in succession of birth of the nine children of Joseph and Mary (Cram) Parsons, he was born in April, 1854, on a farm in Kennebunk, Maine, the old home- stead on which he was reared still belonging to the family.
Ilis early life, like that of many New England boys of his day, was one of hardships and struggles, ready money being searee and wage- earning opportunities rare. Hard-working people, with limited means, his parents trained their sons and daughters to habits of industry, hon- esty, and thrift, and lived to see all of them well settled in life. At the age of sixteen years, through the generosity and kindness of a kinsman, George Parsons was enabled to prepare for college, and was graduated from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, with the elass of 1876. The ensuing fall he entered Comer's Commercial College, in Boston, Massa- chusetts, and having completed a course of six months in that institution aeeepted a position in the office of Edwin Parsons, of New York city, where he remained four and one half years, gaining valuable business knowledge and experience.
Leaving that mart of human activity and commercial strenuosity in Oetober, 1881, Mr. Parsons made his way westward to Alexander county, Illinois, and soon afterward entered the service of the Cairo Trust Prop- erty as bookkeeper, and has sinee been closely associated with this or- ganization, for many years having served most ably and efficiently as its managing head.
A staneh supporter of the principles of the Republican party since casting, in 1876, his vote for President IIayes, Mr. Parsons contributes
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liberally of his time, influence and services towards the advancement of his party and the welfare of city, town and state, being ever mindful of the interests of the people. In the spring of 1905 he was elected mayor of Cairo, and the following November was the choice of the people for county commissioner of Alexander county, polling the largest vote ever cast for a Republican candidate at a similar election, and in the spring of 1907 was honored with a reelection to the mayorship of the city. The work of Mr. Parson both as mayor and as commissioner was such as to reflect credit upon his administrative abilities. Upwards of a million dollars worth of improvements were inaugurated, including a good sewerage system, the paving of many streets, the building of cement sidewalks, and the improvement of the public highways throughout the city and county. For many years Mr. Parsons has been an active mem- ber of the National Good Roads Association, which has been influential in materially improving the highways, more especially the country roads. In the work of improving the roads leading to the National Cem- etery in Pulaski county, near Mound City, Mr. Parsons was an active and interested worker, having donated to the United States Government the right of way from Cache bridge to the cemetery. He also surveyed the road, was instrumental in securing an appropriation from the National Congress for its buikling, and in May, 1907, brought the matter before the war department, at Washington, D. C., in such an effective manner that during the following summer repairs amounting to five thousand dollars were made upon the road.
In 1908 Mr. Parsons acceded to the wishes of his many friends and became a candidate for Congress from the Twenty-fifth congressional district of Illinois. The improvement of the internal waterways has long been of supreme moment, to the people of Southern Illinois, which has a vast frontage on two of the largest rivers of the country. the Ohio and the Mississippi, and this improvement has been intelligently developed through the indefatigable labors of the various River Im- provement Associations, in each of which Mr. Parsons is an active member. Largely through his personal influence, in October. 1907. President Roosevelt and the Inland Waterways Commission made a trip on the Mississippi from Keokuk to Memphis, arriving in Cairo, Illinois, in company with a large delegation of governors and other public offi- cials on October 3, it being the first visit of a president of the United States to the Twenty-fifth congressional district of WHinois. The Presi- dent and his companions were most hospitably entertained by Mr. Par- sons, who likewise had the distinction, in October, 1909. of entertain- ing President Taft and his party on their river journey from Saint Louis to New Orleans, an honor which rarely comes to men so far removed from the seat of government.
In November, 1911, the guests aboard the replica of the boat "New Orleans." making its centennial trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans. were entertained at the home of Mayor Parsons, who extended a public invitation to the citizens of Cairo to gather at his house, express their interest in the great event being commemorated, and extend a neigh- borly greeting to the distinguished party from the head waters of the Ohio. On November 30, 1911, another honor fell to the lot of Mayor Par sons, when he had the pleasure of extending his hospitality to Alfred Tennyson Dickens, son of Charles Dickens, whose descriptions of l'airo after his own visit to this city connects this part of Southern Illinois with the writings of the famous English author and novelist.
Mr. Parsons has been thrice married. He married, first. in Cairo, in 1882. Ada V. Searritt, a daughter of Rev. J. A. Scarritt. She passed to the life beyond in 1897, leaving one child, Blanche Parsons. Two years
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later Mr. Parsons was united in marriage with Isabel Hartley, of New York, who passed away in February, 1911. On February 27, 1912, at Little Rock, Arkansas, he married Miss Mary Pearl Shields, a native of Kentucky. Her father, Charles P. Shields, was at one time professor of languages in Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky.
CYRUS H. IRVIN, M. D. The technical education of the doctor of med- icine avails him but little unless he has laid a foundation for it of broad general knowledge and made a careful study of human nature. When he took up the practice of medicine Dr. Cyrus H. Irvin brought to the profession a mental equipment acquired through a number of years spent as an educator, and with this preparation the mysteries of medicine and surgery were quickly mastered, and success was his from the beginning of his professional career. Dr. Irvin was born in Jeffer- son county, Illinois, October 28, 1878, and is a son of Wilford F. and Julia A. (Hughes) Irvin.
Wilford F. Irvin was born in 1848, in Hamilton county, Illinois, a son of Runion Irvin, who spent his life in agricultural pursuits in Hamilton and Jefferson counties. Like his father, Wilford F. Irvin spent his active years in tilling the soil, and beeame a successful farmer and a well-known Republican politician. His death occurred in 1891. His wife, who was born in Ohio in 1859, and who now makes her home at Mount Vernon, Illinois, is a daughter of Cyrus S. Hughes, who brought his family from Ohio to Illinois in 1861, and for years was known all over Southern Illinois as a dealer in live stock. He accumu- lated a comfortable fortune during the years of his operations here, and retired some time prior to his death. In political matters he was an ardent Jacksonian Democrat.
Cyrus H. Irvin received his preparatory education in the common sehools of Jefferson county, and in 1899 graduated from Ewing College with a certificate which granted him the privilege to teach school. During the four terms that followed he acted as a teacher in the public schools, in the meantime prosecuting his studies with the ultimate objeet of entering professional life. In 1906 he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, St. Louis, and after spending eight months at Dahlgren, Illinois, eame to Sesser. A skilled surgeon, he has practically a monopoly on all the surgical work done here, and acts in that capacity for the Sesser Coal Company. He has been an active and interested member of the Southern Illinois, Illinois State and Franklin County Medical Soeieties and the American Medical Association, and aets as loeal correspondent for the county organization. His fraternal eon- nection is with the local lodge of Odd Fellows. Dr. Irvin has found time to engage in politics, and he is recognized as the logical leader of the Republican forces in Sesser, where his influence in felt in all matters of importanee. The old homestead in Jefferson county, which was operated for so many years by his father, is now owned by him, and in addition he has interested himself in various enterprises of a com- mercial nature. Any movement promising to be of benefit to his adopted community in any way is sure of his hearty support, and worthy movements of a religious and charitable nature find in him an enthusiastic and liberal eo-worker.
On December 19, 1906, Dr. Irvin was married to Miss Mary Ger- trude Lionberger, daughter of A. J. Lionberger, a native of Jefferson county, and now a successful farmer and prominent Republiean poli- tician of Mount Vernon. One child, Mary Louise, has been born to Dr. Irvin and his wife. Mrs. Irvin is a member of the Missionary Bap- tist church.
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COMMODORE MILLS, who owns a large farm in Bond county, Illinois, is one of the leading agrieulturists in that section of the country. He was born in the southern part of Indiana, on the 6th of January, 1863, the son of H. E. and Mary E. (Chewning) Mills. Mr. H. E. Mills was a native of Indiana and was born on the 5th of February, 1829. Indiana was his home state until 1878, when he came to Illinois and located in Bond county, northwest of Greenville, where agricultural pursuits engaged his attention. At the age of twenty-one he was united in marriage with Miss Chewning, of Indiana. To this union nine children were born, Mr. Commodore Mills being the sixth child. Mr. Mills spent the later years of his life in Greenville, and passed away there on the 18th of February, 1909. Mrs. Mills was called to the eternal rest in January of 1892.
The early life of the subject of this sketch was passed in the state of Indiana. When he was fourteen years of age the family moved to Bond county, Illinois. Until he was twenty he attended school each winter for a short time, after the fall farm work was finished. Later he worked on a rented farm for a period, but in 1893 he purchased the farm, extending over one hundred and ten acres, upon which he now resides.
On November 1, 1891, Mr. Mills and Miss Stella Hilliard, of Bond eounty, the daughter of Jerry and Emily (Cushing) Hilliard, entered the holy bonds of matrimony. To this union six children were born : Helen, Blanche, Mildred, Dorothy. Bernice and Isaac.
Like his father, Mr. Mills places his trust in the Republican party. which he has served faithfully for many years. He is affiliated with but one fraternal organization,-the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. and Mrs. Mills are both devoted attendants of the Baptist church, in which they are earnest workers. Mr. Mills takes an active interest in the educa- tional affairs of his neighborhood and acts as school director of his dis- triet. IIe is also the director from Central township in the Farmers' Institute. He is respected by all who come in contact with him for his upright character and loyalty to the loftiest ideals of citizenship.
JACOB KARRAKER was born in Union county, Illinois, September 30, 1822, and died at his home in Dongola, Illinois, March 12, 1910. His par- ents were North Carolina Germans. His father, Daniel Karraker, was born in Cabarrus county, North Carolina, February 8, 1793, and his mother. Rachel Blaekwelder Karraker, in Rowan county, October 1, 1794. They were married May 19, 1818, and left North Carolina on July 28th of the same year and located in what was then a wilderness three miles east of the present location of Dongola, Illinois. Daniel Karraker was a man of strong moral and religious convictions, and his standard was ahead of the time in which he lived.
Jacob Karraker, the subject of this sketch, was born on the farm on which his father settled when he came to Illinois. In October, 1848, he made profession of religion and joined the Bethany Baptist church. In 1851 he was made a licensed preacher and in 1855 he was ordained as a minister of the Gospel, from which time he continued active in the min- istry. He was essentially a pioneer in his tieldl. At a time when the tem- perance movement was not popular, he advised total abstinence from in- toxicants and set the example himself. Ile was largely instrumental in the organization of many new churches in Southern Illinois. He preached to his churches, served as pastor, officiated at marriages and conducted funerals without charge and often without compensation. He was a man of strong conviction and fixed purpose, a great force for the moral and re- ligious uplift of the people among whom he labored.
On December 8. 1842. Jacob Karraker was married to Miss Mary Peeler, whose parents were Christian Peeler and Rachel Brown Peeler.
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Tennesseeans who migrated to Union county, Illinois, in 1827. The fol- lowing were their children : Rachel was married first to Barnabus Penrod and after his death to Mr. W. Martin Keller, a retired farmer living near Dongola, Illinois. Anna M. is deceased. Malinda married Mr. S. W. O. Head, and both husband and wife are now deceased. William Wilford was for twenty-seven years a teacher in the public schools of Union county, Illinois, and is now living on his farm near Dongola, Illinois. His wife was Miss Sarah Ellen Richardson. David W. was county superintendent of schools from 1877 to 1880, state's attorney from 1880 to 1888, state senator from 1888 to 1892, an officer and director of a number of banks in Southern Illinois and an attorney at law. He lives at Jonesboro, Illinois. His wife was Miss Cora Harreld. Lueinda J. is deceased. Henry W. is moderator of the Clear Creek Baptist Association and active in the Bap- tist Ministry, Dongola, Illinois. His wife was Miss Ina Davis. Julius F. is deceased. His wife was Miss Mary Keller. Jacob Calvin is deceased. His wife was Miss Nannie Keller. Mary Ellen married Dr. George W. Ausbrooks, a practising physician of Dongola, Illinois.
O. M. KARRAKER. As president of the First National Bank of Harris- burg, O. M. Karraker is connected with one of the leading financial insti- tutions of Saline county, and is performing the duties devolving upon him in his responsible position with ability, fidelity and to the eminent satisfaction of all concerned.
The Karraker family was first known west of the Alleghanies in 1818, when Daniel Karraker, Mr. Karraker's great-grandfather. migrated from Cabarrus county, North Carolina, to Indiana, settling with his family in the wilderness, from which he redeemed a homestead. Subsequently com- ing to Illinois, he took up land in Union county, near Dongola, and the house which he ereeted is still standing on the old homestead. He there spent the later part of his life, dying at the age of seventy-six years.
Reverend Jacob Karraker, Mr. Karraker's grandfather, was a pioneer minister of the Missionary Baptist chuch, in which he preached for three seore years. He was a noted trapper and hunter, and as a young man was an expert log roller. He spent his last years in Dongola, Illinois, passing away March 12, 1910, aged eighty-seven years, five months and twelve days.
For twenty-six years W. W. Karraker, Mr. Karraker's father, was engaged in professional work, having been well known as a successful and popular school teacher. Ilis home during all of that time was on the old Karraker homestead in Union county, where he is still living, an hon- ored and respected citizen.
Receiving excellent educational advantages when young, O. M. Kar- raker was graduated from the State Normal School at Carbondale, Illi- mois, with the class of 1899. Very soon after receiving his diploma he became principal of the Harrisburg High School, a position in which he served acceptably for eighteen months. Ile subsequently became assistant eashier of the First National Bank of Harrisburg, and served as such from 1900 mmtil 1906, when he was deservedly promoted to cashier of the bank. and January 1. 1912, he became president. an office for which he is amply qualified and eminently adapted. Mr. Karraker was reared in the Baptist faith, his grandfather, Elder Jacob Karraker. having been especially prominent in the affairs of the Bethany Baptist church in Union county, which he organized, and in which he served as pastor, without pay, for twenty consecutive years.
CHARLES ROY LAMER. The well established reputation of the Lamer family in Union county as fruit growers on a large scale is being carried
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on in praiseworthy manner by Charles Roy Lamer, of Cobden, Union county, Ilinois. Ile, with his brother IL. II. Lamer, are among the heaviest producers and shippers in Southern Illinois in the fruit line, and it is consistent with the spirit of the times that mention be made of them in this historical and biographical work.
Charles Roy Lamer, orehardist and general farmer, was born June 28, 1875, on the home farm, two and a half miles northwest of Cobden. Ilis father was Willis Lamer, a native of U'nion county, and his grand- father was Jackson Lamer, who came to Union county from North Caro- lina in the early history of Illinois and filed on government land in Union county. Jackson Lamer prospered, and when he died he left a goodly inheritance to his son Willis. Besides his original holdings of four hun- dred acres of fine land in Union county, he became the owner of eight hundred aeres in Pulaski county. of equal or greater average value. Willis Lamer became wealthy in the fruit growing industry, and was one of the first, if not the first, man in Union county to realize the vast possibilities of Illinois as a fruit producing country. In 1848 Willis Lamer married Frances Lovelace, a native of Johnson county. She was born in 1855, and died in 1908, while on a visit to Texas friends. She was the mother of three children : H. II., Vivian and Charles Roy. In later years Mr. Lamer contracted a second marriage, and two chil- dren. Beulah and Essa, were born of that union.
Charles Roy Lamer was educated in the common schools of Enion county. Early in life, however, he began farming for himself, starting out with one hundred acres of land which came to him from his father's estate. Ile has since increased this to one hundred and seventy-five aeres, and the farm is cultivated as follows: Apples, fifty acres, but the erop in 1911 was hardly an average yield. netting about twelve hundred barrels; peaches, thirty acres, the crop in 1911 being about four thou- sand erates, or fifteen hundred bushels: rhubarb, eight acres, the viel for 1911 being one thousand packages: asparagus, three acres, the xicht for 1911 being six hundred packages. In addition to specific fruit grow- ing, Mr. Lamer does considerable general farming. He employs four regular "hands" and in picking season employs from thirty-five to fifty men. Everything on the Lamer farm is done in an up-to-date and pro- gressive manner. The latest improved machinery is in evidence there. and every labor saving device known to the farming industry is pressed
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