USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 36
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J. C. HARRISON .- A man of indefatigable enterprise and energy, persevering in purpose and persistent in action, J. C. Harrison, of Webb City, holds a place of prominence and influence among the lead- ing real estate men of Jasper county, his special aim in that line being to help men with limited means to obtain homes for themselves and fami- lies on the easy payment plan. Coming from distinguished colonial stock, he was born May 2, 1855, in Rockbridge county, Virginia, a son of Jesse C. Harrison. He is a lineal descendant of a family that has furnished the United States with two presidents, his immigrant ancestor having been the same as that of William Henry Harrison, and of his grandson Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president of our coun- try.
The son of Jesse Harrison, a life-long resident of Virginia, Jesse C. Harrison was born in April, 1825, near Harrisburg, Virginia. and died May 2, 1857. while yet in manhood's prime. He married Mary Ann Taylor, who was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, December 23. 1823, and died at Yates Center, Kansas, in 1901. Her father, Stewart Taylor, a widely known minister of the Methodist persuasion, was one of the three men of Rockbridge county, Virginia, to remain loyal to the Union during the Civil war. Mr. Taylor married Martha Hick- man, who was of German descent, and they reared five sons, all of whom subsequently entered the ministry except one. "Bishop" Taylor, a fine Biblical scholar, acquired world-wide fame as a missionary, having preached the gospel to the natives of Africa, India and Australia.
While yet an infant J. C. Harrison was taken by his parents to Woodford county, Illinois, where he grew to manhood, acquiring an excellent knowledge of the art and science of agriculture on his father's Vol. II-16
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farm. Starting in life for himself at the age of twenty years, he mi- grated to Iroquois county, Illinois, where, with Cupid's assistance, he successfully wooed a young maiden, persuading her to marry him. In 1879 he moved with his bride to "Sunny Kansas," settling on a farm six miles west of Iola, in Allen county, which at that time was a com- paratively new country, where everybody, including himself, was so des- titute that even the buzzards in their flight across the land would scorn- fully turn their heads to one side in passing over that sterile region. Here for twelve years he grappled with starvation, oftentimes almost doubting his ability to master the situation.
In 1893, hearing of the well-nigh unlimited opportunities for acquir- ing wealth in Jasper county, Missouri, Mr. Harrison came to this section of the state, and, with due deliberation and consideration, embarked in the butchering business. At the end of nine months he had succeeded in slaughtering not only considerable stock, but all of his savings excepting a small stock of dry goods, for which he had traded his Kansas property. Placing these goods on shelves in Webb City, Mr. Harrison sat down to await customers, but being accustomed to hard and active work he was unable to endure such a lethargic existence and hired a young lady to stay in the store while he secured work in the mines. He subsequently labored under ground daytimes and staid in the store evenings; finding this mode of procedure unprofitable, as he sold scarce enough goods to pay the rent of the building, he mounted the counter, sold off his entire stock at auction, and secured a position as manager of the circulation department of the Daily Register.
After a few years, having formed an extensive acquaintance with the people and gained their confidence and good will, Mr. Harrison em- barked in the real estate and insurance business, turning his attention more particularly toward assisting working men to secure homes on the easy payment plan. Since entering upon this business Mr. Harrison has had the honor and gratification of fitting out between eight hundred and one thousand homes on this plan, and has never yet up to the present date had to foreclose a mortgage, or take away a home from a buyer. During the past year he has erected, or caused to be erected, more than seventy good houses in Webb City, thus contributing largely towards advancing the growth and prosperity of the place.
Public-spirited and enterprising, Mr. Harrison has ever been among the foremost in the establishment of beneficial projects, devoting much of his time to this line of work. He is a member of the Webb City Com- mercial Club, and is now serving his third term as its president. With the assistance of a few valuable workers, Mr. Harrison succeeded in ef- fecting the organization of the State Municipal League, of which he was the originator, and which now bears the promise of being a leading power for the correction of old, and the enactment of new, laws in the state. The League, which is but two years old, has now a membership of fifty of the leading cities of Missouri, with a good prospect of soon enveloping every city of importance in the state.
Mr. Harrison married, February 23, 1879, in Iroquois county, Il- linois, Clara Laird, eldest daughter of James A. Laird, and into their household the following children have been born: Mrs. Nora H. Covert, wife of a mine owner of Webb City, has four children, Elmer, Theodore, Hazel and Harry ; Mrs. Jessie H. Young, of Webb City, has three chil- dren, Clarence. Byron and Grace; W. Frank, proprietor of Crescent Laundry, in Webb City, is married and has one child, Joseph Harrison ; Mrs. Edna H. Troxel, wife of the superintendent of the job department of the News-Herald, has two children, Fred and Jack; Willis, engaged
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in the eleaning and dyeing business at Webb City; Viola, attending the Webb City High School; and Eugene, a pupil in the high school.
Politieally Mr. Harrison is affiliated with the Republican party, and religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is ae- tive in publie and charitable affairs.
RAY BOND .- Among the distinctively prominent and brilliant lawyers of the younger generation of the state of Missouri, none is more versatile, talented or well equipped for the work of his profession than Ray Bond, who maintains his home and business headquarters at Joplin, in Jasper county. Throughout his career as an able attorney and well fortified counselor he has, by reason of unimpeachable eonduet and elose obser- vance of the unwritten code of professional ethies, gained the admira- tion and respeet of his fellow members of the bar, in addition to which he commands a high place in the confidenec and esteem of his fellow citizens.
Ray Bond, who has been a resident of the city of Joplin since 1899, was born at Wilbur, Nebraska, on the 30th of May, 1880, and he is a son of Jacob and Mary Ann (Kurtz) Bond, both of whom are now liv- ing at Joplin. The father was born and reared in the state of Illinois, whence he removed to Nebraska as a young man, there engaging in the mercantile, grain and banking business. In 1893 he established his home in Kansas and thence he removed to Joplin, Missouri, in 1899. Here he is well known and highly respected in mining cireles and in the business world. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Bond have but one ehild living.
Mr. Bond, of this notice, received his elementary education in the publie schools of Kansas and after his parents' removal to Joplin he was graduated in the local high school as a member of the class of 1904. Sub- sequently he was matriculated as a student in the University of Missouri, at Columbia, in the law department of which excellent institution he was graduated in the year 1907, duly receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Immediately after graduation he initiated the active practice of his profession at Joplin, where he has succeeded in building up a large and lucrative elientage and where he has gained prestige as one of the leading lawyers in the county. For a period of four years he was associated in his legal work with Clark Nichols, but that mutually agree- able alliance was dissolved in January, 1911, sinee which time Mr. Bond has carried on an individual practice. He has figured prominently in a number of important litigations in the state and federal courts and numbers among his clients some of the biggest corporations in the city.
In polities he accords a loyal allegianee to the cause of the Demo- eratie party, in the local couneils of which he has been an active factor. He is the present city attorney nominee of the Democratie ele- ment for the office, a position for which he is eminently well fitted. He is affiliated with a number of professional and fraternal organizations of representative character, in addition to which he is also a valued and appreciative member of the Joplin Club. He is a young man with a de- eidedly promising future, is the possessor of a wide circle of sineere friends and is everywhere accorded the whole-souled regard of his fellow citizens. He is unmarried.
ROBERT F. STEWART is a fine representative of the rising young at- torneys of Jasper county, and through a systematie application of his abilities is fast winning for himself an honored name in the legal pro- fession. A son of Joseph C. Stewart, he was born in Webb City, which has always been his home, May 23, 1886. His grandfather, Robert Ste-
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wart, was born in Pennsylvania, of thrifty Scotch-Irish ancestry, being the descendant of an early pioneer family of that state.
Born in Pennsylvania April 19, 1844, Joseph C. Stewart served for two years as a soldier during the Civil war, enlisting in a Pennsylvania regiment while yet in his teens. He was an active participant in num- erous engagements at the expiration of his term of enlistment being mustered out at Cleveland, Ohio. Soon after attaining his majority he tried the hazard of new fortunes, going to the gold fields of Montana, where he was engaged in prospecting several years, meeting with mod- erate success in his ventures, although, owing to the various hardships through which he had passed, he had practically nothing left when, in 1876, he located in Webb City, Missouri. At that time the present city was a mere hamlet, containing a few scattered dwelling houses, with few promises of its present prosperous condition. With a large amount of energy and ambition as his only eapital, he worked in the lead smelter until he had obtained sufficient sum of money to warrant him in start- ing in business on his own account, and from that time on his success was almost phenomenal.
Organizing the Center Creek Mining Company, Mr. Joseph C. Stew- art bought the land which it now owns and on which there has ever since been a continuous output of valuable ore, the total amount being nearly nine million dollars. He also organized the Exchange Bank, of which he was president until 1906, when it was merged with the Na- tional Bank of Webb City. He was the organizer of the Webb City Iron Works, which was later merged with the Webb City & Carterville Foundry & Machine Works; the organizer of the Stewart Lumber Com- pany, which was afterwards bought out by the Mathews Lumber Com- pany ; of the Stewart Brothers Lumber Company, of Joplin ; of the West Alba Mining Company ; of the Lawton Mining Company; and of the Acme Lead and Zinc Company. Identified with many of the more im- portant industrial and financial enterprises of this part of Jasper county, he was a dominant factor in advancing the highest interests of the com- munity in which he so long resided, and his death, which occurred in Webb City December 28, 1906, was deeply deplored as a public loss. Philanthropic and charitable, he was ever ready to lend a helping hand to any good work, giving generously of his large wealth to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and needy.
Joseph C. Stewart married, in Webb City, March 19, 1878, Hortense D. Street, who was born in the eastern part of Iowa, October 12, 1850, a daughter of Franklin Street. She is still living at her pleasant home in Webb City, which is likewise the home of her three children, namely : Robert F., the special subject of this brief biographical sketch; Cora Latta, wife of Thomas MeCroskey; and Joseph Edgar, a student in the University of Missouri, at Columbia.
Obtaining his elementary education in the Webb City graded and high schools, Robert F. Stewart subsequently studied for three years in the literary department of the University of Missouri. Leaving that in- stitution, he worked with his father a year, and then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the elass of 1910. Immediately beginning the practice of his pro- fession in Webb City, Mr. Stewart, in partnership with L. E. Bates, a brilliant young lawyer, established himself in the Wagner Building, where he has since maintained a suite of law offices, which are finely furnished and equipped with a large and valuable law library. During the short time in which he has been in practice he has built up a good reputation for skill and ability in his legal work, and has won a sub- stantial patronage.
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Mr. Stewart married, June 25, 1910, in Kansas City, Missouri, Doro- thy Doane, a daughter of L. F. and Mary (Jones) Doane. Her father was a prominent business man of Kansas City, and until his death, in 1903, was one of its leading architects, having been identified with the erection of many of the prominent business blocks and residences of that city. Mrs. Doane is still living.
Mr. Stewart is a staunch Republican in politics, and religiously is a member of the Presbyterian church. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons. He also belongs to the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity, and is a member of the Young Men's Christian As- sociation, and of the Webb City Commercial Club, of which he is a di- rector. Mr. Stewart is officially connected with two important industrial enterprises, being a director of the Webb City and Carterville Foundry and Machine Company, and secretary and treasurer of the Center Creek Mining Company. One of the more active, wealthy and popular young men of his community, Mr. Stewart has a host of warm friends, and is one of the leaders in the social activities of the city.
GEORGE JUDSON GRAYSTON was born in Christian county, Missouri, on January 16, 1872, and has been a resident of this state ever since and of Joplin from 1894. IIe is a son of David E. and Sarah ( Wrightsman) Grayston, the former a native of England and the latter of Virginia. The father was born at Ipswich, county Suffolk, England, on June 15, 1830, and came to the United States in 1849. For a time he lived in the state of New York and worked on the Erie canal. At an early day he cast his lot with the yet undeveloped West, in which he saw great prom- ise of future greatness, coming to Missouri and locating on a farm in Christian county. Here he passed the remainder of his days, living on and cultivating his farm during a full half century and dying on it May 9, 1910. His wife died on the same farm in 1886. Both exemplified the sterling traits of American citizenship in a way that won them universal esteem and made them very serviceable to the locality in which their useful labors were bestowed.
Their son George obtained his scholastic training in the public schools of his native county, and after leaving them devoted himself diligently to the study of law. He was admitted to practice in 1899, in Joplin, where he took up his residence in 1894. His progress in the profession has been steady from the start, because he has applied the necessary forces to make it so, and he is now widely known and recognized as one of the leading lawyers in this part of the state. His practice has been general, embracing an extensive variety of cases, and in all he has shown himself well equipped, ready and resourceful. He was counselor for the city from 1904 to 1906. In 1910, on January 1, he became a member of the law firm of Spencer, Grayston & Spencer, which is now at the head of the profession in Jasper county.
On December 14, 1896, Mr. Grayston was married in St. Louis to Miss Minnie Roberts, a daughter of Rev. McCord Roberts, a popular Baptist clergyman of high repute in southern Missouri, who died about 1886, after many years of evangelizing work in that part of the state. Mrs. Grayston walked life's laborious way with her husband fourteen years, then came the great sorrow of his life through her untimely death, which occurred on February 17, 1911. Their two sons, David Raymond and Charles McCord, are living. The former was born in St. Louis on Octo- ber 1, 1897, and the latter in Joplin on February 3, 1900.
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A. J. POYNOR .- Since 1905 A. J. Poynor has been a prominent and influential resident of Joplin, Missouri, where he has manifested a deep and sincere interest in community affairs and where he is one of the best known ore buyers in the mining field. He was born in Christian county, Missouri, on the 7th of June, 1862, a son of John and Camelia Adelia (Morris) Poynor the former of whom was a native of Tennessee and the latter of whom was born and reared in Georgia. The father came to Missouri in the early days and settled in Christian county, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1894 and where he died at the venerable age of seventy-three years. The mother, who long survived her honored husband, was summoned to the life eternal in 1893, at the age of sixty-eight years.
The fifth in order of birth in a family of nine children, A. J. Poyner was educated in the public schools of Christian county and after leaving school he entered the employ of the Frisco Railroad Company, remain- ing with that concern for a period of two years. In 1888 he established his home at Aurora, Missouri, where he engaged in business on his own account, devoting his attention to mining and the buying of ore. In 1900 he removed to Galena, Kansas, but in the following year he went to Cen- tral City, remaining there for four years and coming, in 1905, to Joplin where he has since resided and where he now conducts a prosperous and profitable business enterprise. He is one of the best known ore buyers in the mining fields of this vicinity and in addition to that work he is one of the partners in the Roe Mine, which is situated some three miles from Joplin. The Roe Mine is a very successful and paying property and all the owners therein have realized good money on their investment.
At Aurora, in the year 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Poynor to Miss Dosia Melton, a daughter of Dr. J. A. Melton, a prom- inent physician and surgeon at Aurora, Missouri. To this union has been born one son, Hugh Bell, whose birth occurred on the 1st of July, 1890.
Politically Mr. Poynor accords a stalwart allegiance to the principles and policies promulgated by the Republican party, and while he has never shown aught of desire for political preferment of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all meas- ures and enterprises projected for the good of the general welfare. Mr. Poynor is a man of fine mental caliber and broad human sympathy and he is everywhere respected and admired by reason of his uprightness, his affability and his true gentlemanly courtesy. As a citizen his inter- ests are thoroughly identified with those of the west and at all times he is ready to lend his aid and co-operation to any movement calculated to benefit this section of the country or to advance its wonderful develop- ment.
DANIEL II. RHODES certainly deserves representation among the men who have been instrumental in promoting the welfare of Joplin, Mis- souri. He has done much to advance the wheels of progress, aiding ma- terially in the development of business activity and energy, wherein the prosperity and growth of the state always depend. He has found in each transition stage opportunity for further effort and broader labor and his enterprise has not only contributed to his individual success, but has also been of marked value to the community in which he makes his home.
At the present time Mr. Rhodes is engaged in the engineering and real estate business at Joplin, Jasper county, Missouri, as a member of the firm of Rhodes & Davison. Mr. Rhodes was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, the date of his nativity being December 24, 1838, and he is
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the son of John and. Margaret Ann (Predmore) Rhodes, both of whom are deceased. The paternal ancestors of Mr. Rhodes were natives of Germany, the original progenitors of the name in America having been two brothers who immigrated to this country at an early day, settling in New Jersey. On the maternal side Mr. Rhodes is descended from an old Revolutionary family who were early pioneers in New Jersey. During his aetive business career, his father, John Rhodes, was engaged in the milling business and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1858.
Mr. Rhodes attained to years of maturity in the East, and he re- ceived his early schooling in the district schools of Sussex county, New Jersey, and in those of Chemung county, New York. At the time of the inception of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in Company H, Twenty-seventh New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, Ninth Corps, Army of the Potomae, under Major General A. E. Burnside. Mr. Rhodes par- ticipated in several important engagements marking the progress of the war, the principal of which was the memorable battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, which occurred in December, 1862. He served out his term of enlistment and was honorably discharged from service in September, 1863, at which time his regiment was on its way to the Vicksburg campaign.
After the close of his military career Mr. Rhodes returned to the East and entered the Cayuga Lake Academy, at Aurora, New York, the same being a co-educational boarding school. In this well ordered in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1865, in which year he was matriculated as a student in the celebrated University of Michigan, in the engineering department of which he was graduated in 1869. His first engagement after leaving college was in the United States government coast survey, where he was assistant engineer in primary triangulation work and in the establishment of latitudes and longitudes of stations around the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1871 he became interested in railway engineering work, securing a position in the construction department of various branch lines of the Michigan Central Railroad in Michigan. Subsequently he worked in a similar capacity on the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad in Ohio.
In May, 1879, Mr. Rhodes decided to try his fortune further West and he then entered the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- road, as division engineer on the extension of the line south from Wich- ita, which place was then the southern terminus of the road. He con- tinued in the employ of the Santa Fe road and its auxilary lines until February, 1900, thus completing a term of practically twenty-one years' continuous service with that company. During that time he held various official positions of trust and responsibility, among them being that of resident engineer in charge of track, bridges and buildings ; engineer and general road master for Western Kansas and Colorado; superintendent of the western division from Dodge City, Kansas, to Pueblo, Colorado, and Raton, New Mexico. On May 15, 1884, he was made engineer of the entire line and subsequently he was chief engineer for the construction of the Wichita & Western branch; he was superintendent of the Pan Handle division, the same covering a stretch of five hundred and fifty miles; and he was assistant chief engineer of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road for the construction of the territory line from Bartles- ville, Oklahoma, south. From the foregoing may be formed some concep- tion of the great faith placed in Mr. Rhodes' ability by his employers.
In April, 1900, he was induced to come to Joplin, Missouri, as gen- eral manager for the Consolidated Zinc & Lead Company, a New York- Boston mining concern, owning six mills and several hundred acres of land in Jasper county. For the past year and a half he has been a mem-
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ber of the firm of Rhodes & Davison, engaged in real estate and engineer- ing at Joplin. In addition to his other interests he is a director in the Building & Loan Association, at Topeka, Kansas, president of the Kan- sas & Eastern Real Estate & Investment Company, at Kingman, Kansas; and general manager of the Greensburg, Kansas Water Supply & IIy- draulic Power Company. He is a man of tremendous vitality and most extraordinary executive ability and in all his dealing he is noted for his fair and straightforward methods.
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