USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 29
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
and well applied industry, without the aid of Fortune's favors or ad- ventitious circumstances.
Mr. Burgess is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where his life began on December 19, 1874. His father, William Burgess, was born and reared in Lancashire, England. and his mother, whose maiden name was Julia Farrell. in the city of her son's nativity. The father, an accomplished millwright and machinist, is still a resident of St. Louis, where he has had his home almost all of the time since his arrival in this country many years ago. He has done considerable work toward the development and improvement of the country around him, and throughout a large extent of it there are monuments to his structural intelligence and ability.
The son was educated in his native city, attending both the common and the high school courses of public instruction. and leaving the last temple of Cadmus in which he paid his devotions at the age of eighteen. He then learned the plumber's trade and worked at it fourteen years, eight in St. Louis and six in Joplin, where he took up his residence in 1900. In 1906 he decided to quit working as a journeyman and start a business of his own. With this in view he formed a partnership with W. C. Kerwin and founded the plumbing establishment of Burgess & Kerwin. For the first two years of its history the business of the firm was located at 118 West Sixth street. By the end of that period it had become so extensive that more room and better accommodations were required for it, and it was moved to its present location, at 530 Wall street. The firm is now one of the most extensive operators in its line of work in this portion of the Southwest. It employs regularly from ten to a dozen skilled workmen and its reputation for prompt and sat- isfactory attention to orders is nowhere surpassed.
Mr. Burgess takes a very active and serviceable part in projects de- signed to improve the city and county of his home and advance their interests and the enduring welfare of their people. But he finds no time to spare from public affairs of this character and the exaetions of his business for participation in political contentions. He is allied with the Democratic party in national politics, but ignores partisan consid- erations in local elections and looks only to the good of the community in connection with them, always supporting the candidates he deems best qualified by character and intelligence for the offices they seek.
He is prominent in the fraternal life of his locality, being financial secretary of the lodge to which he belongs in the order of Knights of Columbus, and an influential member of the Order of Elks. His religious connection is with the Catholic church, and to that also he is loyal and devoted, strictly attentive to his duties and ardent in his sup- port of all the works of benevolence and improvement conducted by the church in general and his own parish in particular.
Mr. Burgess was married in Joplin on September 12, 1904, to Miss Nora Welsh, a native of that city and daughter of Michael Welsh, an esteemed resident among its people. During the seven years of their married life, Mr. and Mrs. Burgess have maintained themselves well in the confidence and esteem of the community, taken an active part in its social activities and aided in every way open to them in angmenting and intensifying the usefulness of the mental and moral agencies at work in and around it. All church circles, all school interests, all benevolent institutions and all social organizations have felt the impulse of their helpful energy and enjoyed the manifestations of their bounty. They are universally esteemed as among the most estimable, useful and representative citizens of Jasper county, and they are richly deserving of the good will and high regard everywhere bestowed upon them.
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
NATHANIEL PAIGE, JR .- Since 1904 there has been resident in the city a young man of the type whose acquisition is of inestimable bene- fit to any community and particularly to one such as Joplin and Jas- per county, where the latest scientific discoveries can be brought into play with large results. Nathaniel Paige, Jr., is the young man in question, and his brilliant achievements in his especial field have been of definite order. He has charge of all the local interests of the Gen- eral Electrical Company of Schenectady, New York, and is also presi- dent of that very flourishing young industry, the Paige Rubber & As- bestos Company.
Mr. Paige was born in Washington, D. C., May 31, 1875, and is the son of Nathaniel Paige, Sr., a native of Schenectady and an international lawyer of high repute in Washington and London. He was a partner in the law of the famous statesman, Roscoe Conkling, and was a man of brilliant attainments. He died in 1906, at his home in the national cap- ital, his years at the time of his demise numbering seventy-six. The mother, whose maiden name was Rosa Goldsmith, was a native of Ham- burg, Germany, and is now deceased.
Mr. Paige passed a good portion of his youth in the "city of mag- nificent distances" and followed his public school education with at- tendance at Lehigh University, from which institution he was gradu- ated with the class of 1896. It then became his good fortune to be as- sociated with the Westinghouse Company in Pittsburg, and in the establishment of the great electrical inventor, whose home had at one time been that of the family seat of the Paiges .- Schenectady .- he learned the electrical business from the ground up. In 1904 Mr. Paige, whose unusual talents had early become manifest. was sent to the south- west on an important mission, namely, to electrify the zine fields, and ever since that time Jasper county has been the scene of his activities, his achievements being of such high order as to place him among the leaders in his profession. When he came there was not a one horse power in the electric drives in the zine fields. and now, in 1911, the wonder worker of the age,- electricity .- has been harnessed to the ex- tent of 13,000 power, an eloquent commentary on the success encoun- tered by Mr. Paige and his associates in bringing into play modern sci- entific methods. As previously mentioned, he has charge of all the in- terests of the General Electric Company of Schenectady and also man- ages the thriving industry which bears his name and which came into being through his initiative in 1906,-the Paige Rubber & Asbestos Company.
In Joplin, on August 30, 1907, Mr. Paige established an independent household by marriage, his chosen lady being one of Joplin's daughters. Miss Clara Paul. Her father, W. S. Paul. came here in 1876 and was engaged for a number of years in the agricultural implement business. Mr. Paul has enjoyed a career marked by success, material and other- wise, enjoying in high degree the respect of all with whom he has been brought into contact. He is now retired from the business which in former days engrossed him, and although in possession of sufficient leisure to cultivate the finer things of life, is at the same time occupied in looking after his banking and other interests. Mrs. Paige's mother is of the English family, her maiden name having been Julia English.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Paige is one of Joplin's most delightful abodes, its atmosphere redolent of culture and refinement and its hos- pitality ideal. Mr. Paige, fraternally, is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in all things of a public nature, par- ticularly those looking to the welfare and progress of the whole of so- ciety, he is actively interested.
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
AMSEL T. BLACKWELL .- A business man of unusual ability and tre- mendous vitality in the city of Joplin, Missouri, is Amsel T. Blackwell, who is president of the Redell Manufacturing & Supply Company, manager of the Carthage Ice & Cold Storage Company; and president of the Western Ice & Manufacturer's Association. Mr. Blackwell is strictly a self-made man, and he has fought hard and vigorously for his present high position in the financial world of this city. Success along any line of endeavor would never be properly appreciated if it came with a single effort and unaccompanied by some hardships, for it is the knocks and bruises in life that make success taste so sweet. The fail- ures accentuate the successes, thus making recollections of the former as dear as those of the latter for having been the stepping stones to achievement. The career of Mr. Blackwell but accentuates the fact that success is bound to come to those who join brains with ambition and are willing to work.
At Ozark, in Franklin county, Arkansas, on the 13th of March, 1863, occurred the birth of Amsel T. Blackwell, who is a son of Yowell Blackwell, long a well known merchant at Ozark, where he was called to eternal rest in the year of 1871. He was a gallant and faithful sol- dier in the Civil war, in which he contracted a serious illness which later incapacitated him and finally resulted in his death. He married Miss Louise E. Campbell, who, after her honored husband's death, re- moved with her family to Joplin, coming hither in 1873. She rented a small piece of property in East Joplin, as a home, but it was not long before she bargained for the property where she reared to maturity her family of two children, and that home was paid for by the son, and is owned yet by the family. She was a devoted and adorable mother, and was ever kind to the sick and unfortunate. After the city began to grow she moved to the West side, in a home owned by her son, provided with all the modern comforts. There she resided until her death, in 1907, at the age of sixty-seven years. She was a lady of rare accom- plishments and womanly attributes, and at the time of her demise was deeply mourned by a wide circle of admiring friends and acquaintances. Mr. Blackwell, of this review, has one sister, Allie E., who is the wife of W. E. Poundstone, a prominent citizen of Joplin, where he is engaged in the greenhouse and nursery business. In her girlhood days Mrs. Poundstone was one of the most popular school teachers here, and for the past sixteen years she has been grand secretary of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Missouri.
Amsel T. Blackwell received his primary educational training in the public schools of Joplin, whither his mother removed when he was a child of but ten years of age. During his school days he engaged in a number of different occupations to help in the support of his mother and sister. In those days "scrapping" was quite an industry for the poor girls and boys. "Scrapping" was having a little pick and sack and going among the mines on the waste piles and knocking the little chunks of lead off the rocks and picking up the small pieces of lead found in the waste, and the lead was sold to grocery and confectionery merchants who made a business of buying it at from three cents to three and one-half cents per pound. Some days they would make eleven cents, eighteen cents, thirty cents or forty cents, hardly ever any more, but it bought bread many a time when it was needed. He also sold papers and shined shoes on the streets of Joplin, having also a paper route carrying the Joplin Daily Democrat on the East side, and when he had to change to something else he turned his route over to Luther Mc- Gehee, now the present postmaster. It is interesting to note that through his own unaided efforts he has risen from absolute obscurity to a posi-
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
tion of influence in the community, being recognized to-day as one of Joplin's most influential and highly respected citizens. As president of the Redell Manufacturing & Supply Company he controls a very extensive enterprise and in addition to other interests of broad scope and importance he is general manager of the Carthage Ice & Cold Stor- age Company, of Carthage, Missouri, and is president of the Western Ice & Manufacturer's Association, concerns that figure prominently in the business world. He is possessed of marked executive ability, and his untiring energy has enabled him to rise to a position of affluence in the financial circles of this city.
On the 17th of December, 1890, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Blackwell to Miss Mary R. Higgins, the ceremony having been performed at Harrisonville, Missouri. Mrs. Blackwell is a daughter of John B. and Mary Higgins, the former was a wagon manufacturer in Win- chester, Virginia, and during the war his buggies and wagons were fa- mous as the "Higgins" wagons. He afterwards moved West to Mis- souri, and was proprietor of a hotel at Harrisonville, Missouri, where he resided for a number of years. He was born in Virginia in the year 1825 and he passed to the higher life on the 20th of October, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell had one child, Floyd T., who was born on the 21st of November, 1891, and who died on the same date, the 21st of No- vember, 1901, when just ten years old.
Mr. Blackwell has passed through the circle of York Rite Masonry, being a member of Carthage Lodge, No. 197, Free and Accepted Ma- sons; Meridian Sun, Chapter No. 61, Royal Arch Masons; and Jasper Commandery, No. 31, Knights Templars. IIe is also affiliated with the Carterville, Missouri, lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and with the Joplin organizations of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. In politics he accords an uncompromising allegiance to the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor and he has figured prominently in local politics. In 1910 he made the race for the office of county re- corder of deeds, and in the primary led his ticket by a large majority, but owing to normal political exigencies he was defeated. At Harrison- ville, in his younger days, Mr. Blackwell was prominent in athletics, being especially interested in the National sport, base ball, and for a number of seasons he was captain of the Webb City Stars, which swept all before it in vietories during his successful management. Mr. Black- well is a man of liberal ideas and broad information; he is tolerant of other's opinions and is ever thoughtful of his neighbor's sensibilities. It has often been said he has placed more men in business in his line than others of ten times his financial standing. In every connection his life has been exemplary and he commands the unqualified regard of his many friends and acquaintances. In religious faith his family are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
CAPTAIN G. W. GILMORE .- No more worthy and honored representa- tive of the prosperous and prominent citizens of Carthage can be found than Captain G. W. Gilmore, who did valiant service as an officer in the Civil war, and having since accomplished a satisfactory work as an agriculturist is now living retired from active pursuits at his beautiful home, on the corner of Grand and Fairview Avenues. He has had a varied experience in life, having been a pioneer of the then far West, an active participant in the border warfare of the "fifties," and a maker of history in three or four of the states of the Union. On both sides of the house he comes of fighting stock, his ancestors having been active
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
and prominent in the affairs of the country since colonial days, being as loyal and faithful to its interests in times of war as in the eras of peace and plenty. He was born, in 1832, in Fayette county, Pennsyl- vania, where both his paternal and maternal grandparents were early settlers. His Grandfather Rabb bravely assisted his country during the struggle of the colonists for independence, serving as captain of a company in the Revolutionary army.
Captain David Gilmore, the father of Captain Gilmore of whom we write, was commissioned captain of a company during the war of 1812. and. under General Harrison, fought the Indians on the frontier. He was a very strong, muscular man, of a fine physique, and a citizen of much influence in his community, his death, when but sixty-one years old, being deemed a publie loss. He married Catherine Rabb, a daugh- ter of Captain Andrew Rabb, a pioneer of Fayette county, Pennsyl- vania. Captain Rabb was a man of great energy and enterprise, build- ing one of the first mills and one of the first distilleries in that county. He disposed of his productions in the South, loading the flour and liquor on flatboats and sending them down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. On one occasion he made the return trip on horseback, a distance of eleven hundred miles, carrying his money in the saddle-bags. He attained note as a manufacturer of pure liquor, while he likewise won an honored record as an officer in the Revolution- ary war. Of the union of Captain David and Catherine (Rabb) Gil- more. four children were born, as follows: A. J., who died in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania ; Hugh Jefferson, a resident of that county ; David, who served as captain of a company in the Civil war, died at the age of forty-four years; and G. W., a twin brother of David, is the special subject of this brief biographical record. The mother died at the early age of twenty-eight years.
As he was only nine days old when his mother died, G. W. Gilmore was brought up by his Grandmother Vance, receiving his early educa- tion in the district schools and early becoming familiar with the various branches of general farming. Early in March, 1855, he followed the trail of the emigrant to Kansas, then the seat of a bloody border war- fare, and, under Colonel James H. Lane, saw active war service in the new state. After spending a few years in Lawrence, Kansas, Mr. Gil- more, in 1860, returned to Fayette county. Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1861 he received orders from General George B. McClellan to recruit an independent company of cavalry for active service in the Civil war, serving as captain of his company along the border lines of Virginia and North Carolina. He took part in the engagements at Clarksburg, Virginia, at Carnafax Ferry. West Virginia; was at the front in the battle of Antietam, and in the engagement at Rolla, Vir- ginia ; while at Wytheville, Virginia, twenty-six out of the eighty men under his command were either killed or wounded. While in the army Captain Gihnore served under General Hunter and General Rosecrans, and formed the acquaintance of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and of Major William MeKinley, both of whom subsequently served as presi- dents of the United States.
After receiving his honorable discharge from the army, Captain Gilmore lived for a few years in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he still owns a valuable farm of one hundred and seventy acres. Com- ing from there to Missouri, he lived for a time in Dade county, Mis- souri. and there carried on general farming on an extensive scale, his estate of three hundred and seventy aeres still being in his possession. The Captain likewise owns a large and valuable farm lying two miles northwest of Carthage, on which there is plenty of rock. This farm is
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
highly improved, and consists largely of fine bottom land, which is under a good state of cultivation. His home estate in Carthage is one of the most attractive and desirable pieces of property in the place. Captain Gilmore has always been a lover of horses, and owns many valuable ones of standard breed, and now owning chiefly Wilkes and McGregor stoek, having some very promising young colts in his stables.
Captain Gilmore married, in 1873, Virginia E. Miller, who was born in Greenfield. Missouri, a daughter of Eldridge and Mary S. Miller, who came to Missouri from Tennessee. Six children have blessed their marriage, namely : George D., living on the home farm; Ralph M., liv- ing on the old homestead in Carthage, was a member of Company C, Second Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, in the Spanish-American war; Mary Palmer; Thomas H., a student at the Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri; Grover C. and Kate, at home.
CHARLES E. YATES, or Colonel Yates, as he is popularly known throughout Joplin and Jasper county, is proprietor of the Yates Hotel, at Joplin, one of the most convenient and strictly up-to-date hostelries in the southwest. A native son of Missouri, Colonel Yates was born in Callaway county. this state, on the 11th of December. 1850, and he is a scion of an old Blue Grass family of long standing. His parents. John T. and Elizabeth ( Wiggs) Yates, were both born and reared in Kentucky, whence they removed to Callaway county, Missouri, in the year 1837. The father was a farmer and mule-trader by occupation. and he was engaged in that line of work in the south until 1860. He died in April. 1865. The mother passed into the "great beyond" in 1888. They were the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this review was the youngest in order of birth and of whom he alone is living.
To the public schools of Fulton and Richland, in Callaway county. Missouri, Colonel Yates is indebted for his preliminary educational training. As a young man he turned his attention to farming and stock- raising in Carroll county and for a time he gained distinction as a particularly successful auctioneer. About the year 1900 he became deeply interested in a number of mining projects in Jasper county. whither he had come at that time and subsequently, in 1902, he became owner of the Yates Hotel, which was established also in 1902. This hotel is strictly modern in every respect and its airy, clean rooms, com- bined with its excellent table board, make it unusually popular with the traveling public. During the strenuous period of the Civil war a great deal of guerrilla warfare was carried on in the vicinity of Colonel Yates' home in Callaway county, Missouri, and at that time he became personally acquainted with Quantrell, the James Boys and the Younger Brothers. In his political convictions he accords an unswerving al- legiance to the principles and policies for which the Democratie party stands sponsor, and he is a very active supporter of Jeffersonian prin- «iples. In 1891 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of constable of Carrolton township, in Carroll county, and he served with all of efficiency in that connection for a period of six years.
At Carrollton, Missouri, on the 1st of January, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Yates to Miss Emma Averill, a daughter of George P. and Maria Averill, and a native of Nebraska. This union was prolific of five children. whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,-Mary Averill, Caroline Ellen, Josephine, Yola and Jack T., the latter two of whom are deceased. Mary A. Yates became the wife of Edwin Neeley Cunningham and they reside at 606 North Moffit, Joplin, Missouri. and Caroline E. married Russell Wood James and they main-
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HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY
tain their home at Green Bay, Wisconsin. Colonel and Mrs. Yates have two grandchildren, George E. and Emilie Cunningham. In their re- ligious faith the Yates family are consistent members of the Baptist church, in the different departments of whose work they are most ae- tive factors.
Colonel Yates is very popular with the towns people and traveling publie. He is a fluent conversationalist, versatile and witty, and has no end of short stories and anecdotes, which he relates in a most inter- esting manner. He maintains a very fine farm in MeDonald county. upon which is a fine stream. The Big Sugar Creek. well stocked with game fish of all sorts, where the Colonel and his intimate friends spend a good bit of their time in the pursuit of his favorite sport. A man of sterling integrity and worth, Colonel Yates is well thought of by all with whom he has had dealings and as a citizen his entire career has been characterized by loyalty and publie spirit of the most insistent order.
ORVILLE T. WHITE .- Among the prominent and decidedly progres- sive business men of the younger generation at Joplin, Missouri, Orville T. White holds prestige as one who has succeeded in winning marked success for himself in mining circles and in the general merchandise business. At the present time he has a fine staple grocery and produce establishment at Joplin, in addition to which he also conducts branch stores at Galena and Baxter Springs, Kansas.
In Henry county, Indiana, on the 18th of February, 1874, occurred the birth of Orville T. White, who is a son of Charles A. and Ella (Hornaday) White, the former of whom died at Galena, Kansas, in 1899, and the latter of whom was summoned to the life eternal at Dan- ville, Illinois, in 1878. Mr. Charles A. White was born in Washington county, Indiana, on the 28th of August, 1831, and as a young man he removed to Iowa, where he engaged in farming operations. After re- siding in the latter state for a few years he went to Danville, Illinois, where he devoted his attention to the meat business, continuing to be identified with that line of enterprise from 1875 until 1884. Subse- quently he removed to Galena, Kansas, where for ten years he was superintendent of the Central & Crystal Leases and where he became extremely prominent in mining circles. He passed to eternal rest on the 30th of October, 1899. Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. White were the parents of three children,-Orville T. is the immediate subject of this sketch ; Clara is the wife of C. Arnold and resides in the city of Chicago. Illinois, as does also Millicent, who is now Mrs. Henry J. Ledge.
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