USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 28
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"The trailer also contains a gasoline stove, with two burners, a Kamp Kook outfit with equipment enough for six persons, two Thermos bottles for carrying steaming coffee or tea, frigid lemonade, or other frosty thirst quencher; a Gold Medal furniture outfit, consisting of six cots, three chairs, four stools, a folding table, two tents,-one seven by nine, the other seven by seven feet. Gas pipes are used as poles for the tents. Disconnected these pipes take up very little room. There is plenty of room in the trailer for bed clothing, pillows, provisions, fish- ing tackle, hunting outfit, axe, spade, and folding canvas boat, the latter being an "Acme" eleven feet long and capable of carrying three per- sons, providing they do not weigh more than three hundred pounds apiece.
"The lid of the trailer opens upward and outward, in two parts, when, presto, it ceases to be a lid and becomes a table, solid, rigid and ready for cooking utensils, just as convenient, just as practical and just as artistic as the sliding shelf of wife's cooking cabinet.
"And so it is that life in the dreary stretches of No Man's Land is modernized; so it is that all the comforts of home may be had in the twinkling of an eye, no matter if the scene be the mountain fastnesses of Colorado, or the sweeping, windy prairies of Kansas."
FRANK H. LEE .- The career of Frank H. Lee is a splendid example of what may be accomplished by young manhood that is consecrated to ambition and high purposes. As a self-made lawyer, he is recognized throughout Joplin and Jasper county for his high order of ability and conscientious dealings with his clients. His start in getting his educa- tion was particularly difficult and under similar circumstances many young men would have become discouraged and left the field, but the obstacles instead of discouraging Mr. Lee acted as a stimulant, giving him a momentum and force which have resulted since the period of his first struggles in steady progress and success, and have brought him the esteem of his fellow members of the bar.
Frank H. Lee was born in Johnson county, Kansas, on the 29th of March, 1873, and he is a son of Daniel Marion and Lucy M. (Howard) Lee, both of whom were born and reared in Pickens county, Alabama, where was solemnized their marriage and whence they removed to Kan- sas, in 1872. The father was a gallant and faithful soldier of the Con- federacy during the entire period of the strenuous war between the states. having been enlisted as a member of the Fifth Alabama Infan- try. He was a druggist by occupation, and after his arrival in Kansas
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he devoted a considerable portion of his attention to that line of work, in addition to which he also owned and operated a fine farm in John- son county. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel M. Lee became the parents of twelve children-ten boys and two girls-of whom the subject of this review was the seventh in order of birth. In 1901, while on a visit to his boy- hood home in Pickens county, Alabama, the father was taken suddenly ill and there passed into the great beyond. The mother was summoned to the life eternal in 1898, and of the family eight children are living, 1911.
In the public schools of Cedar county, Missouri, Frank II. Lee re- ceived his preliminary educational training and at an early age he was obliged to make his own way. He assumed the active responsibilities of life as a newsboy and bootblack and to this work he gave that whole- souled devotion that has characterized all his later ventures and that ensures success in any line of enterprise. As a young man he engaged in selling proprietary medicines, and as a salesman he was industrious, able and ambitious. He was always on the alert for an opening to study law and when the opportunity finally presented itself he made the most of it and worked and studied with all his might and main. His progress in the absorption and assimilation of the science of jurispru- denee was of rapid order and he was admitted to the bar in Jasper, county, on the 9th of January, 1905. In that year he came to Joplin, where he immediately entered upon the active practice of his profes- sion and where he is now recognized as a skilled and versatile trial lawyer and as a well fortified counselor. He is thorough and exact in all his work and his innate ability as combined with his tremendous vitality has drawn to him the admiration and respect of his fellow practitioners and his fellow citizens.
On the 24th of November, 1902, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Allie King, the ceremony having been performed at Marshall, Mis- souri. She was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, and is a daughter of Alber and Nancy King, representative citizens at Lafayette county, Missouri. To this union have been born four children, namely,-Doro- thy, Katherine, Alfred and Marion Staples. Mr. and Mrs. Lee hold a se- enre vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of their fellow eiti- zens and they are prominent factors in the social life of Joplin.
While a loyal Democrat in matters of national import, Mr. Lee main- tains an independent attitude in local politics, preferring to give his support to men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment rather than to follow along strictly partisan lines. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodge of the nights of Pythias and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in their religions faith. As a man Mr. Lee is thoroughly conscientious, of undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner, and he has a host of friends and few. if any, enemies.
JOHN P. FRANK, president and treasurer of the Frank-Sievers Un- dertaking Company, Incorporated, with offices at the corner of Fourth and Pearl streets, Joplin, Missouri, is one of the representative men of the city.
Mr. Frank is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was born August 14, 1868. His father, August Frank, born in Germany in 1848, came to this country when a young man and settled in St. Louis, where he spent the remainder of his life and where he died in 1891. He was engaged in business there for a number of years and was well known and much respected, his home being in the southern part of the city, at Carondelet, where his widow still resides. Through his mother. Anna
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Columbia (Sears) Frank, Mr. Frank inherits French and Spanish blood. She was born in mid-ocean, on the United States frigate Col- lumbia, in December, 1846, daughter of Commander and Mrs. Isaac Sears, her father being a noted naval officer and commander of the battle ship on which she was born. The Sears' home was at Jamestown, Virginia.
In St. Louis John P. Frank received a common and high-school edu- cation. In 1886, on leaving school, he came to Joplin and engaged in the cigar manufacturing business at 314 Main street, where he remained and prospered until 1892. In that year he returned to St. Louis and en- tered the employ of the Welch-Sutton White Lead Company, and later was with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, with which he was connected at that place for a period of five years. At the end of that time he was transferred to Omaha, where he was made general agent and superintendent of the company's business, a position he held for ten years. Then he came back to Joplin, still in the employ of the same company. He continued in insurance business, however, only a year longer, leaving it to give his attention to undertaking. For four years he worked for the Joplin Undertaking Company, after which, in 1909. he organized the Frank-Sievers Undertaking Company, Incorporated, of which he is president and treasurer, and which has since maintained elegant offices at the corner of Fourth and Pearl streets.
On October 2, 1889, at Joplin, Missouri, John P. Frank and Miss Mittai E. Miles were united in marriage, and they are the parents of one daughter, Letha, born in Joplin, September 21, 1890, who is a grad- uate of the Joplin High School with the class of 1907. Mrs. Frank is a daughter of James A. and Rebecca Miles, early pioneers of Joplin.
Mr. Frank maintains membership in various fraternal organiza- tions, including the Fraternal Aid Association, the Woodmen of the World, Modern Woodmen of America, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and Free and Accepted Masons, and Mrs. Frank is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Both are members of the Christian church, and, politically, he is a Republican.
Personally Mr. Frank has the initiative ability to ingratiate himself and he possesses the sterling qualities that hold friendship. In his home he is most hospitable, and his friends are many.
TRUMAN R. HART .- Born to a destiny of deprivation and toil, and drawing in the lottery of fate nothing in the way of capital but a stout heart, a healthy body and a resolute and determined spirit, Truman R. Hart, of Joplin, who has worked himself into a comfortable estate, an excellent and expanding business and the regard and good will of all classes of the people wherever he is known, has been the architect of his own fortune, and has made his way in the world without the aid of fav- oring circumstances of any kind. He was born at Glendale, Wisconsin, on August 6, 1876, a son of Willard R. and Margaret (De Lap) Hart, the former a native of Wisconsin and the latter of the state of New York. The father's life began on December 25, 1834, and the mother's on Oc- tober 18, 1845. She died on February 12, 1911, but the father is still living and practicing medicine at Galena, Kansas, where he has been engaged in the same line of useful labor during all of the last thirty- three years. The mother was also a regularly authorized and skillful physician, and enjoyed a high and well-earned reputation for ability and resourcefulness in her profession in the community which had the benefit of her work.
Of the six children born in the family Truman was the last. He at- tended the public schools in Galena, Kansas, until he reached the age of
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seventeen. Then, being obliged by eireumstances to provide for himself, he chose the field of labor most immediately available and the one also most promising at the time, and became a prospector and delver in the mines. He followed mining with a fair degree of success until 1903, finding relief from the burdensome labor and exacting cares of his call- ling by the extensive cultivation and use of his talent as a musician. The cornet is his preferred instrument, but he has skill with others also.
With a view to having regular use of his musical gifts and for the entertainment of the community, he organized the Lakeside Bank of Jop- lin and served as its leader until about five years ago, giving its members vigorous discipline in their training and performances, and enabling the band to win a high and widespread reputation for the excellence of the music it discoursed and the extensive range of its acquirements and pow- ers. Under his leadership its work became the popular feature of all publie entertainments throughout all the surrounding country for many miles.
From the mines at Galena, Kansas, Mr. Hart moved to those of Carterville in this county, and for a number of years worked in them with steady industry and also did considerable profitable prospeeting in his own behalf. But in time he grew tired of the hard labor and un- yielding exactions of the mining industry, and determined to turn his energies into another channel of productive activity. He accepted em- ployment in the Carterville laundry with a view to learning the business, and soon afterward he acquired a one-half interest in the establishment, which he retained for about eighteen months, reaping benefits for him- self and increased business and higher standing for the laundry by his connection with it.
Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the laundry business, he became ambitious for a larger field of operation and sold his interests at Carterville. He then moved to Joplin and accepted the position of manager of the Home Laundry in that city. In the course of a few months he purchased a block of stock in this institution, and at onee began to put in operation plans for its enlargement and improvement. Between July and December, 1908, he moved the plant to its present location at 1729 Main street, re-equipped it with improved machinery of the most approved modern type and changed the name of the establish- ment to The American Laundry Company, which was incorporated on May 28, 1909, with himself as vice president and general manager and Fred F. Smith, who is associated also with the Independent Powder Com- pany, as president.
The American Laundry Company now owns and operates a modern steam laundry in Joplin. Miss Maude E. Jones is the accomplished and accommodating secretary and treasurer of the corporation, and is a great force in spreading and heightening its popularity. It is now planning extensive improvements in addition to those already made, including a deep well, more new machinery, radical alterations in the construction and arrangement of the buildings and beneficial changes in the service. When these are completed the laundry will be the best equipped and most comprehensive in its range of work in the Southwest.
In political allegiance Mr. Hart is connected with the Republican party. but he is not an active partisan and takes but little interest in the contentions between parties and candidates. He gives a good citizen's attention to public affairs, but always votes according to his own judg- ment for the best interests of the people. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America. He gives his lodges earnest and helpful support, and finds
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much in their activities for the good of the community and his own bene- fit and enjoyment.
On December 24, 1899, he was married in Galena, Kansas, to Miss Minnie Charlotte Reynolds, a native of Missouri and daughter of R. W. and Lucy Ellen (Geisler) Reynolds, old settlers at Galena. Mrs. Hart has been of great assistance to her husband in his business and in all the social activities with which he has been connected. He attributes a large measure of his success to her aid, which has been helpful in judicious counsel, wise restraint, timely stimulus and general readiness for every requirement. They have one child, their daughter Margaret Opal, who was born at Carterville on December 6, 1902. Mr. Hart is of Scotch- Irish ancestry on his father's side and of French and German descent on his mother's. He has inherited good traits of character and mental and moral force from all the sources of his being, and as a business man and citizen is a credit to all and a decided benefit to the locality in which he lives, labors and wields his helpful influence.
LEON S. BOUCHER .- An important factor in the industrial and com- mercial life of Joplin is Leon S. Boucher, a native son of the county, who is engaged successfully in the cigar manufacturing business and whose success has been the well-merited and logical result of his own enlightened business methods and originality. Mr. Boucher is still to be numbered among the younger generation, the date of his birth hav- ing been November 27, 1875. His father, Joseph Boucher, was born in Canada and came to Missouri in the early '70s, and engaged in farm- ing until his death, in 1891, at the age of fifty-four years. The maiden name of his mother was Margaret Sutherland.
Mr. Boucher received his education in this county and attended for a time the Central school. His youthful days were spent amid rural surroundings and he had the enviable experience of living "near to Na- ture's heart" and engaging in the strennous tasks encountered upon every farm, which are popularly supposed to conduce to both moral and physical well-being. While a number of years away from his majority he came to Joplin and here learned the cigar business. He soon mas- tered all the details of the trade and with admirable courage and con- fidence, in June, 1893, he decided to place himself upon a more inde- pendent footing and engaged in the business of cigar manufacturing for himself in Galena, Kansas, whence he had removed in that year. His identification with Galena was in many ways important. one being the length of his stay there, for he remained until January, 1904, shortly over a decade. In all this time the charms of his native Joplin re- mained vivid with him and in the year mentioned he came to Joplin and set up in the cigar manufacturing business in a small way. Having the immense advantage of being thoroughly familiar with the business in all its phases and at the same time being equipped with much native energy and initiative, his success was assured and in a little over two years his manufactory made such growth that he found it expedient to remove to larger and more commodious quarters, in June, 1906, estab- lishing himself in his present factorv. which is modern and up-to-date and a model of its kind. He keeps three men on the road and his terri- tory includes two hundred towns in a radius of two hundred miles. His product enjoys a remarkably good reputation and both as a citizen and a business man he is accounted as a valuable acquisition to Joplin.
Mr. Boucher laid the foundation of a happy life companionship by his marriage to Miss Katie Lewis, of Illinois, their union being celebrated in Galena, Kansas, in December, 1896. They have two children,- Ray- mond, born October 21, 1898, and Mildred, born November 26, 1900.
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Their home is one of the attractive and substantial ones of Joplin and its head enjoys the distinction of being a progressive and successful native son of Jasper county.
JOHN W. FREEMAN, who has been conspicuously identified with the business activities of Joplin, Missouri, for a number of years has worked his own way to the front and has justly earned the high esteem in which he is held in the city in which he lives.
John W. Freeman was born November 17, 1863, at Ashley, Illinois, a son of James S. and Sarah C. (Welker) Freeman, early pioneers of southwestern Missouri, now living retired at Webb City. When he was five years old the family moved from Illinois to Missouri and settled on the old Freeman farm at the Nares, about three miles east of Joplin. That was in 1868, and there was then nothing here to indicate that a eity would ever occupy the site. There were only a few scattered houses and farms, and the only schoolhouse of which the neighborhood eould boast was a little log structure with rough board benehes and a dirt floor. Here it was that John W. received his early training. It was not long before his father and brother conceived the idea of starting a sawmill, and in casting about for a suitable location decided upon Newton County, Mis- souri. Their mill was the first one set up in this section of the state, and it is significant that their first important contract was to supply lumber for the first house erected in Joplin. Subsequently Mr. Freeman's par- ents returned to Joplin, and here his education was continued. Mean- time he had been sent to school at Saginaw, some little distance from the home, where he attended regularly in all kinds of weather. The first sehool at Joplin was held in a church building, and a little later a school- house was built at what is now Fourth and Main streets. At both places young Freeman was an attendant, and he went to school successively at Silver Creek, Medoc, Carthage, north of Carterville, and East Joplin, at which several places his parents lived. At Washington School, East Joplin, he had as schoolmates many boys who have since become prom- inent and influential citizens of Joplin, among them being Howard Mur- phy and Will and Walter Sergeant. Mr. Freeman's first work away from home was for his unele, Zenas Freeman, who owned a fruit farm and truck garden west of Joplin. Here the young man earned fifteen dollars a month, marketing the produce, and in this way started his first bank account. Afterward he became an apprentice in the Harmony Foundry & Machine Works at Joplin. He also assisted in the construct- tion of his uncle James A. Daugherty's home at Webb City, Missouri. After the completion of his apprenticeship, he and his brother purchased at Galena, Kansas, a corn mill, which they set up in Joplin. They bought corn and made meal and in this way realized a niee little profit, as they got the mill at a low price. About this time mining in Missouri began to attract no little attention, and, selling their corn mill, the Free- man boys decided to try their luck in the mines. In company with sev- eral others, they went to Belleville and started to operate on Mr. P. Murphy's land, which they had leased. Soon they struck ore and opened up what was at that time the largest mine in the district. In his early business career Mr. Freeman strove always to make his word as good as his bond, and his honesty in any transaction has never been questioned. When the product of the mine was sold, Mr. Murphy depended entirely upon Mr. Freeman to keep the accounts and to deposit to Mr. Murphy's account the ten per cent agreed upon. After this mine had been worked for some time, he and his partners sold out and he associated himself with Messrs. Owens and Block. They opened up a lead mine at Block City, sunk a shaft and struck pay ore, which proved a big thing. Then
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he started a machine shop in the building at the mine and built the hoister and pump they required. This proved a start for him in the machine shop and foundry business. After they had sold the mine at a handsome profit, he built a small machine shop near the railroad yards at that place, and continued there a few years. Returning to Joplin, he selected a piece of land on the corner of Fourteenth and Main streets, which he purchased, and on which he erected a suitable building, re- ceiving financial assistance at this time from Mr. Cunningham. In the selection of this location for his shop he soon realized that he had made no mistake, and it was not long before he needed additional room. From time to time he made additions and extensions, and had all the conven- iences installed in his plant, such as telephone, electric light, etc., fur- nished from outside sources. His telephone service at times being bad, he decided to have a telephone system of his own. Accordingly, he or- ganized a company, sold stock and in a marvelously short time had a hundred telephones installed and in operation, under the name of the Joplin Telephone Company. This company subsequently sold out to the Home Telephone Company of Joplin. This same thing he did in regard to light. He organized a company called the Merchants Electric Light Company, with plant installed in his machine shops and which fur- nished service for a number of merchants. This was sold to the Joplin Electric Light and Power Company, its stockholders receiving a good profit on investment. His large interests in the foundry business he sold in July, 1907, to the United Iron Works, which owns and controls a number of foundries and machine shops in this country; and he has been retained as superintendent of the establishment at Joplin.
At Joplin, Missouri, October 4, 1886, Mr. Freeman and Miss Flor- ence Campbell were united in marriage, and to them have been given five children : Orley A., born at Belleville, Missouri, August 17, 1887, is a graduate of the Joplin High School and the Joplin Business College, and at this writing is manager of the sales department of the United Iron Works Company ; Paul W., born at Belleville in 1889, is manager of the Freeman Motor Car Company at Joplin; Leona, born at Joplin in 1893, is a high school student; Laura Freeman, born at Joplin in 1895. is also in high school; and Katherine, born in Joplin in 1901, is a pupil in the Franklin School.
Mr. Freeman has a beautiful summer home, where he and his family spend the hot months, and he is now erecting a magnificent new residence in South Joplin. He has a keen appreciation of out-door sports, enjoys automobiling, and takes great pleasure in entertaining his friends.
Mr. Freeman is a director of the Joplin State Bank and a member of the Commercial Club. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, Brotherhood Protective Order of Elks, and In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and politically he is a Republican. He and his family are worthy members of the Byers Avenue Methodist Epis- copal church.
CHARLES BURGESS .- Of English ancestry on his father's side of the house and Irish on his mother's, Charles Burgess, of Joplin, where he is at the head of one of the largest and most active plumbing establish- ments in this part of the country, combines in himself the best traits of both races, enlivening the solid sturdiness and bull dog determination of the Anglo-Saxon with the versatility and adaptability of the Celt, and is inspired and energized by the lofty ideals of both. He has shown this in his successful business career, which began with nothing but his natural endowments and has been wrought out by his persistent Vol. II-13
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