USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 77
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Professor Ogilvie received his preliminary education in the schools of Plymouth and was in due time graduated from the high school of that place. Desiring a deeper draught at the "Pierian Spring" he studied at a number of colleges, first at Eureka College, from which he entered the Western Illinois College, then becoming a student at the State Nor- mal University at McComb, and finishing in the State University of Illinois. It is thus to be seen that his educational equipment is of the highest order and he possesses very enlightened ideals on the question of the proper development of the youthful mind. He inaugurated his pedagogical career in 1894, at the age of twenty years, teaching for four years in the rural sehools, and following that he spent six years as ward principal of the schools of Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1909, he became superintendent of the schools of Mendon, Illinois, and remained as such until 1911, when he was appointed to the superintendeney of the Albion schools and here, as elsewhere, has given the greatest satisfaction in his important office. He is not of the type which is content with "letting well enough alone" and has inaugurated several excellent measures. Ile is at the head of a corps of twelve teachers and 360 pupils are enrolled. The high school is aecredited and in the work of instruction Professor Ogilvie has two assistants in this higher department. The course is four years in length and a diploma admits the graduate to college or university.
Professor Ogilvie was married in 1897. Anna Ilubbard of Bowen. Illinois, daughter of John G. Hubbard, becoming his wife. They have two children, Helen and Leslie. Their home is a hospitable one and they occupy an enviable position in social eireles where true worth and intelligence are received as the passports into good society. They are members of the Congregational ehureh and the Professor enjoys fra- ternal relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen, both of Nauvoo.
LEWIS OWEN SNODDY. As one of the more prominent men to be iden- tified with financial matters of his community. Lewis Owen Snoddy. cashier of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Golden Gate, is em- inently deserving of some mention in a historical and biographical work treating of Wayne county.
Mr. Snoddy was born on April 6, 1888, in Covington, Indiana, and is the son of E. O. Snoddy, also a native of Indiana, born there in 1865. and the son of Samuel Snoddy. The latter was born in England and emigrated to America in his early manhood. E. O. Snoddy removed to Illinois in 1904, and is now conducting a banking business in Redmon, Illinois. The mother of Lewis Snoddy was Mary Trueman in her maiden days. She became the mother of four children. namely : Eva, married to
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Sam Horton, and living at Shumway, Illinois; Lewis Owen, of this re- view ; Dean A., of Indianapolis, and Sherman, of Redmon, Illinois.
The public schools of Covington, Indiana, afforded to Dr. Snoddy his elementary education, after which he attended Westfield (III.) Col- lege. For one year after finishing his studies he was assistant cashier of the Shumway Bank, following which he accepted an offer from the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Golden Gate, and he has been cashier of that important institution since its organization to the present time.
The bank was organized October 9, 1909, as a private bank by H. J. Metealfe, who has since aeted as president of the institution; and C. A. French, who is vice president. Other members of the concern are I. T. Goddard, president of the First National Bank of Mt. Carmel; A. M. Stern, president of the First National Bank of Crossville; T. W. Hull, president of the First National Bank of Carmi, and B. French, Sr., of Belmont, Illinois. With such a coterie of well established and thor- oughly responsible men in control of the bank, it is unnecessary to lay further stress upon the solidity and reliability of the institution. It has an individual responsibility of one million dollars, with deposits of thirty-five thousand dollars, and stock subscribed to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. It enjoys the favorable regard of the people of Golden Gate, and is known to be one of the solid and substan- tial financial houses of the county. Since its organization Mr. Snoddy has been cashier of the bank, and has fulfilled his duties in a manner highly creditable to one of his years, and which has indicated his entire fitness for a career in the financial world.
Mr. Snoddy was united in marriage on October 10, 1909, to Berniee Ferguson, of Redmon, daughter of Hugh Ferguson of that place. Two children have been born to them,-Christine Ferguson and Max Eldem, the latter born March 16, 1912. The family are members of the United Brethern church. Mr. Snoddy is a Republican, politieally speaking, and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
HARRY CORWIN MOSS, M. D. The physician is a neecssary element in our civilization, because human life is our most precious possession. A man will sacrifice all his property to save his own life. "Self preserva- tion is the first law of nature" is so trite a maxim as to be known to all and will be disputed by none. The faet that a man will give up his own life to save one whom he loves does not disprove the maxim ; it only emphasizes the power of his affection. But there are good physicians and otherwise. At the best there are many things dark to the wisest and most experienced physicians; and again the best physicians make mistakes. So it is ineumbent upon all persons to secure the services of the ablest physician ; every head of a family should have his family phy- sician, if for no other reason than to give perfect confidence in his judgment to the members of the family. In these days of hypnotie sng- gestions when sometimes a single word will turn the tide of disease and death, a physician cannot be given too much latitude-that is a highly reputable physician, such as Dr. Moss of this sketeh.
Dr. Harry Corwin Moss is a native of this seetion of the state, his eyes having first opened to the light of day near Mt. Vernon amid the rural surroundings of his father's farm. His father, Captain John R. Moss, was born in 1830, and died October 2, 1909, in Albion. The elder gentleman was a native of Jefferson county, this state, and the son of Ransom and Anna (Johnson) Moss, who were among the pioneers of Jefferson county, and who were born and reared in the Old Dominion. They migrated first to North Carolina, then to Tennessee, and then, as was often the eustom in those days to the westward, coming to Sonthern
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Illinois and establishing a home for themselves in Jefferson county as early as 1818, meeting, it is unnecessary to state, their share of the many hardships encountered by the pioneer and enjoying the wholesome pleasures peculiar to their lot. Ransom Moss was twice married, his first wife passing away in Kentucky. He died at the early age of thirty- nine years, but his wife, Anna Johnson Moss; survived him for many, many years-more than half a century, in fact, for she was ninety-three when she was summoned to the life eternal in 1895, leaving over two lmundred descendants. She was a remarkable woman, of strong character, as well as physical frame.
Capt. John R. Moss was a farmer by occupation and a soldier in the great conflict between the states. Ile enrolled and organized Company C of the Sixtieth Illinois Regiment, a company made up of the flower of Jefferson county manhood, and he served as captain of this company for a considerable period. He was taken ill with measles and returned home on furlough and in 1863 was appointed provo-marshal, with head- quarters in Olney and in one official capacity or another he served until the affair at Appomattox brought peace to the stricken land. He was one of his county's ablest and most highly respected citizens and served as representative in the Illinois legislature and upon one occasion was candidate for state senator. He married Pamelia C. AHen, a native of this state and a daughter of Rev. George Allen, a Methodist minister and a native of Georgia, and her demise occurred on March 16, 1909. only a few months before her husband. these cherished and devoted life companions being united in death as in life. They reared a family of six children, namely : Angus Ivan, a resident of Mt. Vernon ; Norman II .. an attorney, also of that place: Addie May (MeAnally). deceased. of Carbondale, Illinois; Anna E. Neal, of Knoxville, Tennessee, whose hus- band is a wholesale merchant of that southern city; Harry Corwin ; and Grace, wife of Rufus Grant, cashier of the Third National Bank of Mt. Vernon, Illinois.
Dr. Moss received his education in the public schools of Mt. Vernon and had the advantgaes of both the common and higher departments. Ile subsequently entered the Southern Illinois Normal University and following that taught school in Jefferson and St. Clair counties, acting as principal of the schools of Marissa, this state in the years 1891. 1892 and 1893. In 1894, having come to the conclusion to change his pro- fession from the pedagogical to the medical, he entered the Missouri Medical College, and was gradnated with the necessary degree, and in his case a well-earned one, in the spring of 1898. Since that time, not content with "letting well enough alone" he has taken a post-graduate course. In the year of his graduation he located in Albion and here has ever since practiced snecessfully, being practically the leading prac- titioner of the city. Ile is a constant student and makes every effort to keep abreast of the onward march of progress in his tield. He is a prominent member of the Tri-State Medical Association, and was mark- edly influential in organizing the County Medical Society. He is a Republican in politics and his word is of weight in local party conneils, and his influence and support a desirable asset. He was elected coroner of Edwards county in 1902 and served in that office for an entire decade. and he has also served as chairman of the board of health from 190] to 1911. He is exceedingly popular and enjoys the highest order of esteem for his ability, sound principles of life and conduet and unfail- ing altruism and publie spirit. He takes pleasure in lodge affairs and his affiliations extend to the Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America. Ben Hur and the Mystic Workmen. His church is the Methodist Episcopal.
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Dr. Moss was happily married in 1895, his chosen lady being Eliza- beth C. Wilson, of Marissa, daughter of Rev. J. C. Wilson, a Baptist minister. They maintain a hospitable household and are in all respeets among Albion's fine citizenship.
CITIZENS' STATE & SAVINGS BANK. Occupying a position of no little priority as one of the substantial and ably conducted banking institu- tions of Southern Illinois, the Citizens' State & Savings Bank of Mur- physboro, Jackson county, bases its operations upon ample capitalistic resources and upon an exeentive corps of able and representative order. The institution is the successor of the Commercial Bank, which had been conducted under private auspices, and it has a paid-in capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, with a surplus fund of about eight thousand dol- lars. A general commercial banking business is conducted and special attention is given to the savings department, in which four per cent in- terest is paid on deposits.
The Citizens' State & Savings Bank was organized and incorporated in July, 1904, and the personnel of its executive corps at the present time is as here noted : John M. Herbert, president ; John Q. Adams, vice president ; Harry O. Ozburn, cashier; and Robert J. Hodge, assistant cashier. The business of the bank has shown a steady and substantial growth and a careful and conservative management has given the institu- tion an impregnable place in popular confidence, so that it constitutes a valuable contribution to the financial concerns of the city and county in which it is established.
DANIEL BALDWIN PARKINSON, A. M., Ph. D., President of the South- ern Illinois State Normal University, is a native of Southern Illinois, but traces his ancestry to the Cavaliers of the Carolinas.
Peter Parkinson, the paternal great-grandfather, came to North Carolina prior to the Revolution. He married Miss Mary Marr from which union there were born ten children namely : Daniel, John, Eman- uel, Joanna, Washington, William, Peter, Marjorie and Lavine. It has always been a tradition in the Parkinson family that Peter Parkinson was a Revolutionary soldier.
Washington Parkinson, the grandfather of the subject of our sketeh was born September 3, 1787. Ilis parents came to Tennessee some time in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Here Washington Park- inson married Miss Mary Moore about the year 1807. The father of Miss Moore came to Highland, Illinois, about the middle of the nine- teenth century where he died at the ripe old age of 95 years.
Washington Parkinson and his wife, Mary, had five children-Wil- liam, George, Alfred Jackson, Catherine and Valinda. The third son, Alfred Jackson, was the father of the subject of our sketeh, Dr. D. B. Parkinson.
Alfred Jackson Parkinson was born in White county, Tennessee, Jan- mary 16, 1816. He was a farmer as was his father and his grandfather. About the year 1830 he came with his father, Washington Parkinson, to the vicinity of Highland, Madison county, Illinois. Here the Parkinsons entered land of the government and built a home.
At an early day there came from Connectieut to the region of Le- banon, St. Clair county, Illinois, about twelve miles from the Parkinson home, one Zera Baldwin, and his brother. Daniel Baldwin. Daniel settled upon a choice piece of land upon which stands the famous "Emerald Monnd." about two miles northeast of Lebanon. It was not far from this beautiful mound that Charles Dickens, the famous English author, stood when he beheld for the first time the noted "Looking Glass Prairie, " a real American prairie. Zera Baldwin was a hatter before coming to the
D.Parkinson-
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new west, but it does not appear that he followed the trade in linois. He settled a mile or so east of the mound.
Daniel built a substantial briek residence at the foot of the Emerald Mound. From the yard of this home a flight of steps led to the top of the mound from which a charming view could be had over all the sur- rounding country. This home of Daniel Baldwin was the center of the social life in that community, and to it often came the young people to while away the time on top of Emerald Mound. Among those who eame often to this home was a daughter of Zera Baldwin, Miss Mary Engenia Baldwin, whom her unele Daniel greatly loved. Another guest often found in the same home was the young Tennesseean, Andrew Jack- son Parkinson, from near Highland. The passing acquaintance of An- drew Jackson and Mary Eugenia ripened into love and matrimony. They were married at the home of Daniel Baldwin in the fall of 1842. They went to live upon the lands of the elder Parkinson near Highland where they lived many, many years happily together till the death of Mrs. Parkinson which ocenrred in January, 1890.
There came into this new home in due course of time nine children as follows: George Washington, Daniel Baldwin, Augustus Alfred, Julia Emily, Edward Henry, Charles William, Oscar Louis, Arthur Engene, and Mary Emma. Daniel, the second son, was born September 6, 1845.
Alfred J. Parkinson, the father of these nine children, was a plain matter-of-faet sort of man, quiet, nnostentatious, frugal and industrious. He was as his name might suggest a Jackson Democrat. But in 1856 he voted for Freemont and in 1860 for Abraham Lincoln. He remained a Republican till late in life when he allied himself with the Prohibitionists. He was a man of strong convictions and gave his whole heart to any eanse which he espoused. His people had been converts of the new Cumberland Presbyterian movement in the early part of the last cen- tury, but he was never allied with that church. He was the latter half of his life a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
In 1878 he was elected state senator on the Republican ticket in the forty-first senatorial district. He was a great admirer of General John 1. Logan and took part in the election of that great leader to the United States senate in 1879. Mr. Parkinson died November 14, 1904.
Daniel Baldwin Parkinson grew to young manhood upon his father's farm. He knew what hard work was in those early days. He had the advantage of the country schools and remembers very gratefully his teachers at "Oak Grove." He had also the help which comes from a well regulated home and from sympathetic parents. When he had fin- ished the rural school he attended the schools of Highland where he pursued some advanced studies. In 1864 with his brother George he entered MeKendree College. Lebanon, Illinois. Here he came under the influence of Dr. Robert Allyn, the president of the college. He was grad- nated in 1868.
While he was attending school in MeRendree, he roomed for several terms in the home of Prof. Samnel I. Deneen, the father of Illinois' present popular governor. Prof. Deneen was the teacher of the ancient languages. The governor was a small lad at that time, some younger than our student friend, but the friendship formed at that time has never waned, and the two men are today warmly attached to each other.
The year following his graduation. Dr. Parkinson remained on the farm to recuperate his health. In the fall of 1869 he took up his chosen profession at Carmi following his college mate and personal friend. Prof. J. M. Dixon. In the fall of 1870 he entered the faenlty of Jen- nings Seminary, Aurora, Illinois, where he remained three years as
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instructor in the natural sciences and mathematics. While teaching in Aurora, Dr. Parkinson formed the acquaintance of Dr. Frank Hall lately deceased and of Dr. W. B. Powell, for many years superintendent of the schools of the District of Columbia. In 1873 he entered Northwestern University for advanced work in science, and while here he was elected to a professorship in the Southern Illinois State Normal University which was to open at Carbondale in the summer of 1874.
In this new position Dr. Parkinson was to be associated with his old teacher, Dr. Robert Allyn, who had been made president of the new normal school. His work was the physical seiences. He remained in charge of this department of work from 1874 to 1897. A vacancy oc- eurred at this time in the presideney of the school and Dr. Parkinson was elected "acting president." He served in this position for one year and was then made permanent president, which position he has held for fifteen years. IIe has therefore been a member of the faculty of the Southern Illinois State Normal University for thirty-eight years-fifteen of which he has served as its president.
On December 18, 1876, Dr. Parkinson was married to Miss Julia F. Mason, whose father, Allen C. Mason, lived in Normal, Illinois. One son, Daniel Mason Parkinson was born to this marriage, October 12, 1877. He graduated from the normal, and married Miss Margaret Hill, daugh- ter of Senator George W. Hill, of Murphysboro. They have two fine boys, William and Robert. Daniel, Jr., is a prosperous business man of San Antonio, Texas-district superintendent of the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company. On August 6, 1879, Mrs. Parkinson died.
On July 30, 1884, Dr. Parkinson was united in marriage with Miss Mary Alice Raymond, who was also a teacher in the normal school. To this union two children were born, Raymond Fielding Parkinson, born June 7, 1886, and Mary Alice Parkinson, born May 9, 1891. Both of these children have been graduated from the normal school. Raymond has pursued advaneed work in Northwestern University, and Alice is now a student in the Woman's College in Roekford this state.
Mrs. Parkinson is deseended from a number of New England fami- lies of some note. She traees her ancestry to Roger Conant, the governor for more than a year of a commercial colony on the Massachusetts shore at the present Cape Ann. He filled this position from 1624 to 1626, and removed from there to Salem, where Governor Endicott found him in 1628. John Conant a direct deseendant of Roger Conant was born in 1743 and died 1809. He was a Revolutionary soldier, married Miss Emma Thorndike. He had a son, Major John Conant, born 1771, and died 1859. He married Sarah Fiske and their daughter, Sarah Conant, married James Giles Raymond, the son of David Raymond and his wife. Hannah Giles Raymond. James Giles Raymond and his wife, Sarah Conant Raymond, had a son Charles Fiske Raymond, the father of Mrs. Mary Alice (Raymond) Parkinson. Chas. F. Raymond was a business man, a contractor, in St. Louis where he was aeeidentally killed in 1860. Mrs. Parkinson also traees her aneestry through her mother, Jennie Fielding Raymond, to Ebenezer Raymond, who was in the British army at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. He left the English army and joined the cause of the patriot army. It is said the Ray- monds have occupied the same homestead in Beverly, Massachusetts, for two hundred years.
Dr. D. B. Parkinson and family are eommunicants in the Methodist Episcopal church. They are very faithful to their vows and seldom miss a service.
An estimate of the real worth of a man can not be justly made by those who are close to him in time and place. However, we may know
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something of the real worth of a man by the every day duties he per- forms and the character of the contribution he makes to the lives of those about him. And if greatness is to be defined in terms of simplicity, and goodness in terms of "malice toward none with charity for all," then truly Dr. Parkinson may be said to be a great and good man.
No man has come so vitally in touch with the life that now is in southern Illinois as has our good friend. Dr. Parkinson. More than twelve thousand young people have enrolled as students in the Southern Illinois State Normal University, and while he has not known all of them personally, they have known him. They all knew his interest in young people and they knew him to be a friend of them in every laudable an- dertaking in which they might embark. Dr. Parkinson has never sought notoriety, but has had for his guidance through all the years-"'not for myself, but for others."
On June 5, 1912, the Alumni Association of the Southern Illinois State Normal University, in the presence of the largest class that was ever graduated from the institution, and before an appreciative audience, presented to the trustees of the university a life size portrait of their beloved president. The portrait will hang beside one of Dr. Robert Allyn, presented by the Alumni Association to the school a seore of years ago.
JUDGE JOHN L. COOPER, one of the leading members of the bar of Southern Illinois, was born on the fourth day of September, 1863, in Fairfield, which has always been his home. ITis father, John II. Cooper, who began his life as a citizen of Ohio in 1831, was one of the three sons of Whitson Cooper. He, together with his two brothers, Whitson N. and Calvin, eame to Wayne county, Illinois, from Ohio, in 1854. The senior John Cooper, reared in Columbiana county, Ohio, and gradu- ated from the Cincinnati Law School at the age of twenty-one, was a man of learning and intellect. Settling in Illinois the year after his graduation, he began the practice of his profession with a bright ont- look for the future, both he and his brothers being soon recognized as young men of "parts." The brother Calvin became one of the first county superintendents of schools in the new home.
Sneh was the situation at the outbreak of the Civil war. Before go- ing to the front Mr. Cooper persuaded the woman of his choice to be- come his wife, that she might in reality be his "for better or for worse." Leaving his bride of but a few short months and his growing legal prae- tice, he bid final farewell to his glowing prospeets and on the first day of Oetober, 1862, was commissioned as regimental quartermaster of the Eighty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. During the siege of Vicks- burg he contracted a fatal disease and died en route home on a furlough. His death took place on the fourth day of October, 1863, just one month after the birth of his only child, whom he was never permitted to hold in his arms.
The young wife, now almost simultaneously a mother and a widow, was a native daughter of Tennessee, whose natural sympathies might have been with those who had caused the death of her youthful husband. She had been brought to Illinois while still a child by her father. C. L. Organ, who was prominent among the early settlers of Wayne county. having arrived in the late Forties. His brother. H. A. Organ, served the county as sheriff from 1858 until 1860.
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