USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 15
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been noted in this context. He resides in a most beautiful country home near the mills, at Shoalsburg, and the place is one of the most attractive in this section of the state, as well as a center of refined and gracious hospitality. He is essentially progressive and public spirited in his civic attitude and is one of the well known, valued and popular business men of his native county. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party.
GEORGE W. MILLER, M. D .- The sterling character and fine profes- sional attainments of Dr. Miller have given him prestige as one of the honored and essentially representative physicians and surgeons of Jasper county, and he has been engaged in active general practice in the city of Joplin for more than a score of years. In point of service he thus takes precedence of the greater number of his professional confreres in the county, and by them he is held in unqualified confidence and esteem, as is indicated by the fact that he has served as president of the Jasper County Medical Society.
The family of which Dr. Miller is a worthy scion was founded in America in the colonial days and the lineage is traced back to staunch English origin. The progenitors in America were members of the Society of Friends and first settled in New Jersey, whence representatives later removed to Pennsylvania, with whose history the name has been iden- tified for many generations. Dr. Miller himself is a native of the old Keystone state, which is endeared to him by the gracious memories and associations of the past. He was born at Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of May, 1845, and is a son of Thomas and Hannah (Ramage) Miller, both of whom were likewise natives of Penn- sylvania, where they passed their entire lives. There Thomas Miller who was born in Fayette county, was for many years engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements, at New Geneva, but the later years of his life were devoted to agricultural pursuits. He died in 1882, at the age of seventy-two years, and the mother of the Doctor was sum- moned to the life eternal in 1856, at the age of thirty-six years. Both were birthright members of the Society of Friends and ever continued their allegiance to the same, the while they well exemplified its noble and simple faith in their daily lives.
Dr. George W. Miller gained his early educational discipline in the common schools and in private schools in his native state, and as a youth he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors. He was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Pennsylvania for several years, and in the meanwhile he formulated definite plans for his future career. He determined to prepare himself for the medical profession, and with this end in view he finally entered the celebrated Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in the city of New York, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880 and from which he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has ever continued a close stu- dent of his profession and in addition to having recourse to the best of its standard and periodical literature he has also taken effective post- graduate courses in leading medical institutions in New York city and Chicago.
In 1879 Dr. Miller had come to the west and established his home in Girard, Kansas, and after his graduation, in the following year, he here took up the active work of his profession. He continued in successful practice at Girard for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which, in 1890, he removed to Joplin, in which city he has since labored with all of zeal, ability and devotion in the work of his exacting vocation. He has found demand for his ministrations throughout the section tributary
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to Joplin and his practice has been of extensive and representative order for many years, the while he has gained and retained a secure place in the confidence and affectionate regard of the people of his home city and county. He is serving as a member of the board of United States pen- sion examining surgeons for Jasper county, and he is identified with the American Medical Association, the Missouri State Medical Society and the Jasper County Medical Society, of which last mentioned he served as president for one year. He was also president of the Joplin Academy of Medicine, which was later merged with the county medical society. Broad-minded, liberal and public-spirited, Dr. Miller is ever found ready to give his co-operation in support of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community, and, while not desirous of pol- itical preferment he has given an unqualified allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, in so far as national issues are involved. In local affairs he maintains an independent attitude, giving his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He is af- filiated with the Masonic fraternity, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and other social organizations, and his family hold membership in the Presbyterian church.
In his personality and benignant influence Dr. Miller well exemplifies the traits of the old-time family physician, though he has kept pace with the advances made in both departments of his professional work. He has proved a true friend, a dispenser of good cheer, a safe and wise counselor in all matter affecting the happiness and welfare of the family and the community. He has made of his ealling something more than a cold-blooded science, without soul, heart or sympathy, and he has sedul- ously observed the best ethies and ideals of his profession, and his per- sonal honor has been manifested in all the relations of life. His dom- inating purpose has been to alleviate suffering and distress, and his re- ward has been based upon honest and conscientious service.
At Girard, Kansas, in the year 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Miller to Miss Caroline Strauss, who was born at Hublersburg, Penn- sylvania, and who is a daughter of the late Dr. Henry P. Strauss, a representative physician of Pennsylvania and one who gave valiant ser- vice as Division surgeon with the Army of the Potomae in the Civil war. Dr. and Mrs. Miller have but one child, Mildred, who remains at the par- ental home.
I. N. THRELKELD .- The activity and enterprise of any growing een- ter of population is perhaps as clearly indicated in the class of pro- fessional men who look after its legal interests as in any other respeet, and it is with pleasure that we refer to I. N. Threlkeld, who is a mem- ber of the law firm of Coon & Threlkeld, which conduets a general prae- tice of law. The accuracy and familiarity with legal lore of this firm is well known and their library consists of the highest legal authori- ties, territorial, state and federal court reports, etc., their practice being one of large and lucrative order. They are men who stand high in the estimation of the inhabitants of Joplin as citizens, while in the profes- sion they have the admiration of the bar and the judiciary and their cases are prosecuted with persisteney and tenacity of purpose which defies all just cause for defeat.
Mr. Threlkeld, of this review, was born in Illinois, on the 14th of March, 1871, and he is a son of Isaae and Eustacia (Anderson) Threl- keld, both of whom are deceased. The name "Threlkeld" is traced back through literature to the line of the Norman invasion in England, the family being originally of Norwegian and Danish extraction. The original representatives of the name in America were natives of Eng-
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land, whence they immigrated to this country in the early colonial era of our national history, location having been made in Culpeper county, Virginia. Later members of the family followed Daniel Boone on his expedition into Kentucky and it may also be noted at this point that several generations of Mr. Threlkeld's maternal ancestors were promi- nent Kentuckians, who figured in the political, professional and social life of that commonwealth. Mr. Threlkeld's father was a farmer by occupation and he passed the greater part of his active business career on his estate in southern Illinois, where his demise occurred when he was in his forty-ninth year. The mother, who was a native of May- field, Kentucky, passed into the "great beyond" when her son, I. N., was a child of but two years of age.
1. N. Threlkeld passed the early days of his life on his father's farm, in connection with the work of which he waxed strong mentally and physically. He was nineteen years of age at the time of his father's death but prior to that time he had received a good common school education in Franklin county, Illinois. He was a student for three months in Ewing College, at Ewing, Illinois, and his first independent occupation was that of teaching, with which he was identified for two terms in Franklin county. In 1892 he entered the law office of his uncle, T. M. Mooneyhan, at Benton, Illinois, and there began the prep- aration for the legal profession. Being a poor boy without any means and not wishing to be dependent on his unele for his support, he worked on the latter's farm in the evenings and mornings, in that way reim- bursing the uncle for his keep. His progress in the absorption and assimilation of the minutia of the law was of rapid order and he was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1903, after having passed the exami- nation before the Illinois court of appeals, at Mount Vernon, that state. He received his license to practice law from the supreme court of the state of Illinois and shortly after that event he removed to Belle- ville, Illinois, where he entered into a partnership alliance with R. A. Mooneyhan and where he remained for the ensuing two and a half years. In 1899, however, he decided to try new territory and in that year he went to Empire City, Kansas, where he soon built up a large and lucrative practice and where he served as city attorney for a period of three years. Being ambitions and seeking a larger field he, in 1903, decided to locate at Joplin and here he has since resided. In 1911 he formed a partnership with Byron H. Coon, under the firm name of Coon & Threlkeld, and this concern is rapidly becoming known as one of the leading law firms in Jasper county.
In Franklin county, Illinois, on the 3d of September, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Threlkeld to Miss Pearl Breveau, who was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 1st of December, 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Threlkeld have no children. They are devout members of the Christian church in their religious faith and are popu- lar in the social life of Joplin, where their attractive home is renowned for that gracious hospitality of the ancient and sincere type.
In politics Mr. Threlkeld is a progressive Republican and he has always been an active participant in the local political campaigns. The only office of which he has been incumbent since his advent in JJoplin is that of secretary of the board of education, which he filled in 1907-8. In a fraternal way he has passed through the circle of Scottish Rite Ma- sonry, having attained to the thirty-second degree. He is also a valued and appreciative member of Joplin Lodge, No. 335, Ancient Free & Ac- cepted Masons, besides which he is connected with the Modern Wood- men of America and with the organization known as the Yeomen. In connection with the business life of Joplin he is affiliated with the
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Commercial Club. In all the walks of life Mr. Threlkeld has so con- dueted himself as to command the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men and as a citizen he is always on the qui vive to do all in his power to advanee the best interests of the community.
THOMAS HERRON .- Ideas backed with indefatigable energy,-the de- sire and power to accomplish big things,-these qualities make of suc- cess not an accident but a logical result. The man of initiative is he who combines with a capacity for hard work an indomitable will. Such a man recognizes no such thing as failure and his final success is on a parity with his well directed efforts. The term "self-made" has grown to be rather a haekneved expression, but when applied significantly to the eareer of Thomas Herron it is not without meaning. He has earned his own livelihood from earliest youth and his business life as a miner and insurance man has been fraught with success of no mean order. For fully a third of a century he has maintained his home at Joplin, where he commands the unqualified regard of all with whom he has come in contact.
Thomas Herron was born in Carleton county, province of Ontario, Canada, the date of his nativity being the 22nd of March, 1851. He is a son of John and Margaret (Cram) Herron, the former of whom was born at Armagh, Ireland, in the year 1827, and the latter of whom was a native of Scotland, where her birth occurred in 1820. The father was a farmer by oceupation and he passed the greater portion of his active business career in Canada, where he reared a family of twelve children. The paternal grandparents of him whose name initiates this artiele were Thomas and Jane (Gordon) Herron, who immigrated to America in an early day and who passed the closing years of their lives in the Dominion of Canada. William Gordon, great-grandfather of Thomas Herron, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, 1753, and died in Carleton county, Province of Ontario, Canada, at the advanced age of one hundred and eight years. The maternal grandparents of Thomas Herron, of this review, were John and Marguerite (Gow) Cram, both of Scotland, the Gow family being one of long standing in that country.
To the sturdy influence of the home farm Thomas Herron was reared to adult age and he received his preliminary educational train- ing in the country schools of his native place. At an early age, when most young men are engrossed with youthful sports and pastimes, he began life in the lumber regions of the dense Canadian forests, where privation and hardships are the rule and by no means the exception. Invariably he made his bed with the rough but warm-hearted lumber men out in the northern wilds, miles and miles from any habitation, sleeping rolled up in a blanket out in the woods in all kinds of weather. He toiled on in the lumber industry for a number of years but grad- ually drifted into railroad construction work. With the passage of time he moved further and further south, getting into the state of Missouri, where he became a factor in the building of the Frisco system in this state. He continued to be identified with railroad work for a number of years, always working his way further south until finally he was in the great commonwealth of Texas. He then determined to locate permanently, and as a place of abode he chose Joplin, Missouri, which was then, in 1877. a booming town of several thousand inhabi- tants. After his arrival in this city he turned his attention to machine work, having become very familiar with that line of enterprise as the result of long experience in railroad construction. Eventually, how- ever, he became interested in mining, having been offered a mining claim known as the Little Nugget Mine. He began to work this claim,
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which proved a very valuable investment for him. At about this period his health became impaired, however, and he was forced to turn his at- tention to some less strenuous work. His son was a large insurance man at Joplin and Mr. Herron decided to buy an interest in that busi- ness, the same having grown to such gigantic proportions that another man was needed to run it. This was in the year 1908, and since that time Mr. Herron and his son have conducted the insurance agency known under the firm name of Thomas Herron & Son. They have achieved marked success as representatives of the Equitable Life Insur- ance Company of Iowa.
On the 20th of October, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Herron to Miss Lola Franklin, the ceremony having been performed at Sherman, Texas. She was born and reared at Neosho, Missouri, and is a daughter of A. S. Franklin, long a prominent and influential citi- zen at Joplin. To Mr. and Mrs. Herron have been born two children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated,- Bueford, born on the 4th of April, 1881, is engaged in the insurance business at Joplin, in company with his father, as previously noted ; and Maude, born on the 20th of June, 1879, was united in marriage to W. A. Snodgrass on the 4th of August, 1907, and they maintain their home at Joplin, Missouri. Mrs. Herron is a woman of most gracious and pleasing personality and she is deeply beloved by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle influence.
In political affairs of national import Mr. Herron is aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party but in local poli- tics he maintains an independent attitude. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the time-honored Masonie order, in the Scottish Rite branch of which he has attained to the ultimate degree-the thirty- third. He is also connected with Joplin Lodge, No. 335, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Herron is a man of high and honorable principles, is possessed of a splendid personality, is loyal to his friends and generous to the weak, and taken all in all he is a type of Ameri- can manhood of whom any community would be justly proud.
MARTIN T. BALSLEY, M. D .- Various states of the Union have given valued contributions to the corps of representative physicians and sur- geons now engaged in successful practice in Jasper county, and of the number who can claim Illinois as the place of their nativity a promi- nent representative is Dr. Balsley, who is known as one of the leading practitioners in the thriving metropolis of the county, the city of Joplin. Dr. Balsley was born at Marshall, the judicial eenter of Clark county, Illinois, and the date of his nativity was May 7, 1853. He is a son of Hiram Cassady Balsley and Hester Ann (Smith) Balsley, the former of whom was born at Collinsville, Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom was a native of Vermont, the family having been founded in New England in the colonial days. Hiram C. Balsley was a pioneer of Illinois, was a cabinet maker by trade and vocation, and both he and his wife continued to reside in that state until their death, at Marshall, Clark county. They became the parents of eleven sons and two daugh- ters, and of the number Dr. Martin T., a twin, was the seventh in order of birth. The daughters are deceased and only six of the sons are living.
Dr. Martin Toner Balsley is indebted to the public schools of his native place for his early educational training, which included a course in the high school. In preparation for the work of his ehosen profession he prosecuted his studies for one year in the medical department of Northwestern University, in Chicago, though the university itself is located in the beautiful suburban city of Evanston. He next entered
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the medical department of Butler University, at Indianapolis, Indiana, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1881 and from which he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. For two years thereafter he was engaged in practice at Mar- shall. Illinois, his native place, and for the ensuing six years he main- tained his home and professional headquarters in the city of Dan- Ville, that state. There he remained until 1886, when he came to Jop- lin, where he has since maintained a position of prominence as one of the most able, successful and popular physicians and surgeons of Jasper county. He is now one of the oldest representatives of his profession in Joplin, in point of continuous practice in this city. and his business is of large and representative order, giving assurance alike of his fine professional ability and his personal hold upon popular con- fidence and esteem. The doctor is liberal and public-spirited and has done all in his power to further the best interests of the community along both material and social lines. He is unflagging in his devotion to his exacting vocation and is imbued with that deep human sympathy which transcends mere emotion and sentiment to become an actuating motive for helpfulness. He is actively identified with the American Medical Association, the Tri-State Medical Association, the Missouri State Medical Society and the Jasper County Medical Society.
Dr. Balsley gives a staunch adherence to the Republican party but the honors and emoluments of political office have had no attraction for him. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second one-half or K. C. C. H. degree of the Ancient Ac- cepted Scottish Rite, and he is a most appreciative and influential mem- ber of the great fraternity in Missouri. He has once served as illus- trious grand master of the grand lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in this state, is a past Grand Sovereign of the Red Cross of Con- stantine, and is at the present time grand scribe of the host of the Missouri Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He has passed the various official chairs in the various York Rite bodies and is also a number in the Scottish Rite. The Doctor was formerly affiliated in an active way with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he served for three years as lieutenant colonel of the Patriarchs Militant.
He also holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America and other fraternal organizations, and is identi- fied with the Joplin Commercial Club. He is at the present time the president and a valued and influential member of the board of edu- cation in his home city and takes deep interest in the public schools. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Dr. Balsley is a man of most gracious personality and his cir- cle of friends in Jasper county is coincident with that of his acquaint- ances. His professional work has been of the most earnest and self- abnegating order and he is the loved physician to many of the leading families in the county. In a retrospective way it may be noted that the original representatives of the Balsley family in America came from Germany, settling in Pennsylvania prior to the war of the Revolution. The paternal grandfather of the Doctor attained to the patriarchal age of one hundred and four years; the father was eighty-two years of age at time of death, and the mother, of English lineage, attained to the age of eighty-four years.
In the year 1873, at Danville, Illinois, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Balsley to Miss Elsie Jane Sanderson, who was born in Ver- milion county, that state, where her father, James Sanderson, was a pioneer settler. Concerning the children of Dr. and Mrs. Balsley the following brief data were given, all of the children having been born
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in Joplin except the eldest, who is a native of Danville, Illinois : Nellie is now a student in an art school in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio; Clyde M. is a student in the medical department of Washington University, in the city of St. Louis, where he will be graduated as a member of the class of 1913; Mabel is a member of the class of 1911 in the Joplin high school ; and Gladys is attending the public schools.
JOSEPH C. WATKINS .- Among the enterprising and energetic citizens of the younger generation at Joplin, Missouri, Joseph C. Watkins has gained recognition as one whose success in civil engineering work has been on a parity with his well directed endeavors. He has lived in this city since 1907 and during his residence here has gained marked dis- tinction as a business man of ability and as a citizen of unusual loyalty and publie spirit.
Joseph C. Watkins was born at Ashley, Missouri, on the 1st of Sep- tember, 1877, and he is a son of Joseph C. Watkins, who was likewise born in Missouri and who was summoned to the life eternal in August, 1894, at the comparatively young age of fifty-one years. The father was a lawyer by profession but the greater portion of his active business career was devoted to educational work, he having been superintendent of schools at each of the following cities,-Ashley and Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and at Ennis, Texas, his death having occurred at the latter place, where he resided from 1888 until 1894. At the outbreak of the Civil war Joseph C. Watkins, Sr., was a lad of but seventeen years of age, slender and delicate constitutionally. He became fired with enthus- iasm for the Confederate cause, however, and enlisted as a soldier un- der Captain McIntyre, in 1861. The company of which he was a mem- ber left Fulton, Missouri, on the 17th of June, 1861, and after long, toil- some marching and many other difficulties it overtook the Missouri troops under Governor Jackson in the south-western part of the state. On the march many of the young soldiers broke down and were forced to return home, but young Joe never faltered, always being one of the first to reach camp. He was a gallant and faithful young soldier and participated in many of the most important battles marking the prog- ress of the war, among them being the battle of Carthage, in Jasper county, Missouri, where General Price was victorious. He also saw ae- tive service in the conflict at Wilson Creek, in Greene county, Missouri. Captain McIntyre, in speaking of Mr. Watkins, said: "He was always at his post, full of courage, obedient to discipline and a model soldier boy." He was enrolled as a member of Company A, First regiment, Third Division, Missouri State Guard. The company was infantry ; John I. Burbridge, of Pike county, Missouri, was the colonel in' command ; General John B. Clark, of Howard county, Missouri, was division com- mander; and General Sterling Price, commander in chief of Missouri troops. Mr. Watkins served with all of valor and distinction until the close of the war and after peace had again been established he returned to Missouri, where was solemnized his marriage to Betty G. Alderson, a native of Missouri and a daughter of B. H. Alderson. She was born in St. Charles county, on the 28th of November, 1852, and died April 1, 1911, at Ennis, Texas. She was deeply beloved by all who came within the sphere of her gracious influence. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Watkins the subject of this review was the second youngest.
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