USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 39
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William H. Bates was born on the home farm in Ohio, May 20, 1836, in Stark county, and was there bred and educated. During the progress of the Civil war he enlisted in the Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, and served under Colonel Bucklan and General Sherman, taking part in the battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Corinth, and in various other engagements, escaping, fortunately, without wounds or injury of any kind. He subsequently located in Wood county, Ohio, and is still a resident of Rising Sun, being a well-known and prominent farmer. In the spring of 1867 he was united in marriage with Mary Inman, who was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, April 3, 1837, and died November 3, 1908. Her father, Benjamin Inman, was born in New York state, and as a young man became a pioneer settler of Sandusky county, Ohio. He was of English lineage, and was of Revolutionary stock, some of his kins- men serving in the Revolutionary war, and likewise in the war of 1812. He married Elizabeth Jennings, who was of Irish ancestry and belonged to a family noted for its patriotism, one of her brothers, Captain Will- iam Jennings, having served under General W. T. Scott in the Mexican war.
Educated in his native state, Sardis W. Bates attended first the pub- lic schools. Beginning his active career as an educator, he was for two years an instructor in the public schools, after which he studied for awhile in the academic department of Heidelberg University, in Tiffin, Ohio, and later, in 1905, took his collegiate course at Otterbein Univer- sity, Westerville, Ohio, receiving the degree of A. B. Subsequently, dur- ing the Spanish-American war, Mr. Bates enlisted in the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was stationed first at Chickamauga, Georgia, and later at Knoxville, Tennessee, and Macon, Georgia, from there, in the spring of 1899, being sent home with his regiment.
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In the fall of 1905 Mr. Bates began a course of study in the law de- partment of the Ohio State University, and two years later, in 1907, was graduated from the law department of the University of Missouri, at Columbia. Locating at Webb City in June, 1908, he began the practice of his profession, for a year being associated with L. E. Bates. The en- suing year he was in company with Mr. Robertson, and was afterwards in partnership with R. T. Abernathy until Mr. Abernathy entered the service of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In December, 1910, Mr. Bates formed a partnership with Judge Robertson, and the firm is now carry- ing on a large and highly remunerative business having an extensive and substantial clientage. Mr. Bates was elected city attorney at the last municipal election, and has since filled the position with eminent ability and fidelity.
In Springfield, Missouri, December 19, 1909, Mr. Bates was united in marriage with Georgie Jones Collier. Her father, John W. Jones, for many years a prominent railroad contractor, died in early life, and her mother, whose maiden name was Josephine Mitchell, died in July, 1907. Fraternally Mr. Bates is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He also belongs to the Delta Chi legal fraternity and to the Phi Kappa Phi college fraternity. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat.
Mr. Bates has three sisters living, namely : Zela B., born May 19, 1873, is the wife of J. R. King, who has charge of the United Brethren Training School at Free-Town, Sierra Leone, Africa, and also vice con- sul for America ; Estella B., born in Wood county, Ohio, August 11, 1882, is the wife of Rev. R. C. Swisher, pastor of the Congregational church at Vermilion, Ohio; and Leila B., born in Wood county, Ohio, October 26, 1888, is a student at Otterbein University.
C. R. CHINN, JR .- Cashier of the Webb City Bank, one of the oldest and strongest financial institutions in Jasper county, and city treasurer for a second term in a wideawake and progressive municipality whose standard of official ability and fidelity is high, C. R. Chinn, Jr., may justly be regarded as one of the leading and most esteemed citizens of the community in which his years are passing and his energies are em- ployed. His record in business and official life and his universal pop- ularity prove that he deserves his high standing, and the success of all the enterprises with which he is connected indicates forcibly that the confidence and good will of the people have not been bestowed upon him without full justification and ample knowledge on their part.
Mr. Chinn was born in Webb City, this county, on December 29, 1882. His parents were W. S. and Minnie (Manker) Chinn, whose life story and ancestry are given in a sketch which will be found elsewhere in this volume. The son obtained his education mainly in the public schools of his native place and in the Kemper Military School at Boon- ville in Cooper county. From that institution he was graduated in 1901. He then attended the University of Missouri for a time with a view to se- curing some measure of higher training and special fitness for greater usefulness in life.
On leaving the university he entered the employ of the Webb City Bank as clerk, and that position he filled until the death of his father, in 1909, when he was promoted to the post of cashier of the bank as his father's successor. As cashier he has had a potential influence in direct- ing the policy and course of the bank ever since, and has won a high and widespread reputation for his capacity and breadth of view as a finan- cier, his accommodating disposition in the discharge of his duties, his public spirit as a citizen and his worth as a man. The affairs of the bank
Frank J, Ereller
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have prospered under his management, and the public estimation in which it is held has constantly increased. Its business is large and ac- tive, and it is known far and wide for the excellence of its methods, the prudence with which it is governed and the progressiveness it displays.
On June 10, 1908, Mr. Chinn was married in Webb City to Miss Myrtle Daugherty, a daughter of Hon. J. A. Daugherty, a sketch of whom appears in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Chinn have one child, their daugh- ter Mary Elizabeth, who was born on April 1, 1909. She is the light and life of their pleasant home and very popular with their numerous friends who gather around their hearthstone frequently and always find it a center of culture and refined and genuine hospitality.
Mr. Chinn has taken a very active part in the fraternal life of his community. He belongs to the Masonic order in all the branches of the York rite and makes his membership tell in all greatly to their benefit. He holds membership in Webb City Lodge, Webb City Royal Arch Chap- ter, Jasper Council of Royal and Select Masons, Ascension Commandery of Knights Templar, in Joplin, the degree of Red Cross of Constan- tine, and Abou Ben Adam Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Springfield, Missouri. He is also a member of the Order of Elks and a past exalted ruler of his lodge.
In his political faith and allegiance Mr. Chinn belongs to the Demo- cratie party, and he gives it loyal and appreciated service on all occa- sions. His strong devotion and continued service to his party and his fitness for official duties marked him as a suitable nominee for the office of city treasurer, and he was elected to it by a handsome majority of the voters. At the end of his term he was re-elected, and is now serving for the second time. His wife is a member of the Southern Methodist Epis- copal church and takes an active part in all departments of its good work.
Like all other good citizens, Mr. Chinn is an energetic force in the promotion of all public improvements in his city and county. No under- taking that seems likely to be of service to the people or minister to the enlargement of their comfort or convenience goes without his efficient aid, and he renders excellent service to all by his own diligence and in- telligence and also by the forces he sets in motion in others by his exam- ple and stimulating activity. Webb City has no better citizen and none who is more highly or more universally esteemed.
FRANK T. CRELLER .- Uniting in himself the blood of England and Germany through ancestors from those countries, Frank T. Creller, of Joplin,-one of the most successful mining men in the whole south- west-has some of the best traits of both races, and has them in a com- bination so well-balanced and proportioned that they work harmoniously together and give him the elements of force and domination for which both races are noted. ITis paternal forefathers lived in England, and those of his mother in Germany, although his parents, Horatio and Emily (Bush) Creller, were natives and life-long residents of Canada. living in the province of Quebec.
The son was born in that province also, in the town of Clarence- ville, where his life began on February 9, 1847, and he was the first born of the five children in the family. His parents were farmers, and he passed his time until he reached the age of eighteen on the home' farm, taking his part in the labor of cultivating it, and attending the public schools and later an academy in his native place. As he ap- proached manhood the undeveloped West in this country held out a winning hand to him, and in 1866, soon after completing his education, he came to Missouri and located in the city of St. Joseph. For three
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years he taught school in the county of which St. Joseph is the leading city and metropolis.
In 1869 he moved to Jasper county and took up his residence in Oronogo, arriving here in the fall of that year. During the succeeding winter he again taught school, and in the summer of 1870 changed his residence to the vicinity of Baxter Springs, and near Lowell, where he followed farming for two years. By the end of that period Joplin had warmed into vigorous life and begun to show signs of what the future had in store for it as a city and an industrial and commercial center. He was attracted by the promise of rapid progress and great develop- ment the circumstances made for the coming metropolis of the county, and in 1873 became a resident of it and one of its hopeful and energetic promoters.
During the next ten years he sold merchandise on the road, as a representative of some of the leading grocery houses of Kansas City, and also, during the same period, gave some attention to mining, with which he has been more or less directly connected ever since. He was a youth of nineteen when he came to Missouri, and had no equipment for the battle of life but his natural endowment and the flexibility and power for usefulness to himself and others his schooling and experience had given them. But he faced the future resolutely, employing his time industriously and wisely for his own advancement, and he made steady progress.
Growing weary of the exactions in labor and care and of the small returns in remuneration incident to the life of a traveling salesman, he turned his attention to dealing in real estate and more constant mining operations. His fortunes improved, his capacity broadening in these more congenial fields, and he soon felt that his success as a producer and business man was assured. He became the owner of the Excelsior mine in the Four Corners region, which was one of the best mines in the county at that time, and he sold it in June, 1908, at a large profit.
In the meantime he acquired other extensive holdings in this and Newton county, and by successive purchases he now owns six hundred and twenty-three acres of mining lands, three hundred and twenty acres of which adjoin the city limits of Joplin, and all of which show ore in- dications of great value. He is also possessed of many valuable pieces of city property. All his accumulations are the result of his own efforts and business ability. He began with nothing in the way of worldly wealth, and fortune has never bestowed on him any favors except what he has wrung from her unwilling hands. His ancestors on both sides of the house were at one time people of extensive landed interests. They were residents of New York at the beginning of the Revolutionary war, but as they espoused the cause of the mother country in that con- flict, they deemed it best to remove to Canada, and as a reward for their loyalty to Great Britain in one of the most critical times of her whole history, the government bestowed upon them large tracts of land in the Dominion. None of this, however, descended to the subject of this review. Ile has made and not inherited his estate, as he has hewed out and not stumbled upon his opportunities for advancement, rising from the hardships and privations of his earlier years to his present wealth and consequence among men.
In his political action Mr. Creller is independent of partisan ties, and takes no part in contentions between the parties. He bestows his suffrage where he believes it will do the most good for the general wel- fare of the people, and without any regard for partisan or personal considerations. He was married in this county in 1869 to Miss Emma Herron, a daughter of James Herron, a native of Pennsylvania, and by
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this marriage has become the father of four children,-Alice, who was born at Lowell; Charles S., whose life began at Baxter Springs; and Gertrude, who is a native of Joplin and now the wife of H. E. Williams of Kansas City. One little one did not survive childhood. Charles S. is in business with his father.
Mr. Creller's extensive and accurate knowledge of mining and his great success in the use of that knowledge made him secretary of the Lead and Zinc Mining Association of Joplin in 1894-a position which he filled with distinguished ability for a perod of three years. One of his most notable achievements in this service was the means of formulat- ing the plans, through the association, to purchase the ores of this re- gion on assay, the price paid to be based on the real metal value of the ores; and the smelting was to be done in this district. Mr. Creller worked three years and spent thousands of dollars in perfecting the system and trying to get it started; his proposed method of handling the ore would be one of the greatest benefits ever conferred on the min- ing industry in this part of the country, and one in which everybody connected with that industry in producing and marketing ore would have a share. In order for the smelter owners to defeat the plan they were compelled to purchase the ore on assay at prices above any former figures paid, which they were afterwards unable to lower to the former level, resulting in millions of dollars more being paid to the zinc ore producers of this district.
JOHN HENRY MELTON is an exemplification of the fact that in Jas- per county if a man is made of the right stuff he can succeed in spite of everything. Mr. Melton fought against discouragements that would have been too much for most men and he came out on top. Now that those years of struggle have passed, he is reaping the benefit of them. He could never have appreciated his present success if he had not achieved it with so much effort. We value most that which it costs us effort to obtain. To-day Mr. Melton is one of the most prominent men in the real estate business.
John Armstrong Melton, father of John Henry, was born in Ten- nessee, April 11, 1832. He was the son of a farmer in that state. In 1850, when he was eighteen years old, he came to Barton county, Mis- souri, to begin farming for himself. He only stayed there one year and in 1851 he went to Neosho. He farmed there until the time of his death, April 14th, 1908, although for thirty-eight years of that time he lived in town. His wife was Eliza Britton. She was born in Neosho, married there, gave birth to eleven children there, buried six of them there and still lives there among the people she has known and loved all of her life.
John Henry Melton was born April 11, 1871, at Neosho, Newton county, Missouri. His parents were firm believers in education and they gave their children the very best that their means would permit. He attended the public schools of Neosho and afterwards went to Scarritt College. When he left college he thought he should like to be a physician and he studied medicine for two years with Dr. Benton. At the end of that time he had decided that some other calling was more suited to his capabilities and to his tastes. He went into the stock business, buying and selling cattle. He stayed at home on the farm until 1897, when he went to Joplin. He stayed there for one year only and then returned to Neosho. His father was not prospering very well and John Henry aided him on the farm; then he was sick for some time. In August, 1901, he came to Webb City, having very little money in his pockets. He very soon came to the end of his re-
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sources, but did not become discouraged. He was not particular what he did to earn a living, but accepted any honest work that he could find. After some months of this kind of a life, he was fortunate enough to make one or two good deals in land on a commission basis and in November, 1902, he went into the real estate business, since which time he has had great success.
In 1896, while he was raising stock at Neosho, he married Sophia Bowman, a native of Laclede county. Mr. and Mrs. Melton have had three children, Roscoe, Eulah Loraine and Ellis.
Mr. Melton is a member of the Methodist church, South. His time is spent in attending to his business, his church and his family. He and his family are both liked and respected in Webb City. He has shown that he is a man who is not easily daunted and he is well thought of all over the county.
WILLIAM R. ROBERTSON .- Without knowing, perhaps, to what an ex- tent the law is a jealous mistress, and how complete is the devotion she requires of her votaries whom she favors with her benefactions, William R. Robertson, of Webb City in this county, one of the leading lawyers in the Southwest, approached her shrine in the proper spirit and with a purpose in accordance with her exactions. This was due to the es- sential elements of his character and make-up-a combination of rare qualities on which his success in life is based and by the exercise of which it has been won. He has grit and fiber, the genius of applica- tion, a knowledge of himself and unyielding purpose, together with fine intellectual endowment.
Judge Robertson was born in Randolph county, Missouri, on April 3. 1866. and is a son of Milton and Mary (Hardy) Robertson, both natives of Tennessee, the former born in August, 1818, and the latter August 31, 1826. The father was a farmer. He died in Dade county, this state, in 1885. His widow survived him a full quarter of a cen- tury, dying in 1910. They were the parents of ten children, of whom William R. was the ninth in the order of birth.
He began his scholastic training in the public schools of Dade county, Missouri, and completed it at Ozark college in Greenfield, the seat of government in that county, which he attended two years. After leav- ing college he taught school in Dade county three years, and while do- ing this studied law, spending portions of the time in the office and under the direction of Messrs. Mann & Talbott, prominent lawyers in Greenfield. In 1890 he passed a satisfactory examination before Judge D. P. Stratton and was admitted to practice in the state courts.
It seemed to him that a new field, in which he would be among strangers and have no one to depend on but himself. would be best for the exercise of his powers and the development of the career to which he looked forward. Accordingly, he moved to Colorado and located in Delta county, where he taught school for one year. At the end of the term he took up his residence at Delta, the county seat, and began the practice of his profession. He made such an impression on the legal fraternity and the people in that portion of the state that he was elected county judge of Delta county in 1892, after a residence of less than three years in the state. But this office was not to his taste, and he resigned before the end of his term and formed a law partnership with A. R. King, under the firm name of King & Robertson. The part- nership continued until August, 1898, and built up a good business, con- sidering the smallness of the county's population and the undeveloped state of the country. In the year last named Mr. Robertson left the firm and returned to Missouri, locating at Webb City, where he has
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lived ever since, enlarging his practice and extending his reputation as a capable lawyer, skilful and aceomplished advocate and very worthy, useful and representative citizen.
On January 1, 1911, he entered into partnership with S. W. Bates for the practice of law, the firm being known as Robertson & Bates, and at once taking rank as one of the strongest and most resourceful law firms in this part of the country. It has a very large and representa- tive practice, including in its clientage many of the leading men of Jasper and the surrounding counties in this and the adjoining states, and is one of the three law practitioners in Jasper county that have been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States.
As he has been industrious and successful in his practice, and ear- nestly devoted to all its duties, so Mr. Robertson has been also attentive to the business and industrial interests of the city and county of his home. He has been a director of the Merchants and Miners Bank from its organization, and is also its secretary and attorney, being more than ordinarily interested in its progress beeause of having been one of its founders. He is also a director and the vice president of the Reliance Mining Company and holds the same official relations to the Rogers Lead and Zinc Company. All these institutions are flourishing, and all feel in the active currents of their life and usefulness the quieken- ing impulse of his excellent judgment and productive energy.
The public affairs of the city and county in which he lives enlist his earnest and intelligent interest, and all undertakings for the improve- ment of the region, the development of its resources and the welfare of its people command his energetic and effective support. On politi- cal questions he is loyal to the principles of the Democratic party, but he is not an active partisan and takes no part in political contentions except what good citizenship requires. In the fraternal life of the com- munity around him he is an important factor, holding membership in the Masonic order as a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight Templar and a Council Mason, and being in his Lodge a past master and one of its trustees. He also belongs to the Order of Elks and is one of the trustees of his lodge in that order, Webb City Lodge No. 861.
The various organizations devoted to the welfare and advancement of his profession have his cordial and appreciated support in every way. He is an active member of the State and the Jasper County Bar Associations, and takes a leading part in their proceedings. He also belongs to the Webb City Commercial Club, and has rendered it faith- ful and fruitful service as its president. The Presbyterian church is his guide in religious matters, and the congregation to which he belongs is liberally aided by him in all its commendable work.
On March 13, 1895, in Delta, Colorado, Judge Robertson bowed be- neath the "flowery yoke of Eros," uniting in marriage with Miss Emma Van de Venter, a native of Maryland and daughter of Frank and Sarah (Friend) Van de Venter, prominent residents of the county in which the marriage was solemnized. Four children have been born in the Robertson household : Alene, whose life began in Delta, Colorado; and Lawrence De, Franklin and Frederic, all of whom are natives of Webb City.
From the start this highly accomplished lawyer, courteous gentle- man and estimable citizen has made his own way in the world. For- tune never opened her cynical hand to him except in obedience to his industry and perseverance, a form of persuasion she could not resist. He was a poor boy, earning money for his education in school and col- lege by working on farms, and for his professional training by teach- ing school. His own trials and privations in early life have made him
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considerate toward the difficulties of other men and tender in his re- gard for the feelings, wishes and rights of all. This disposition has won him hosts of friends and a wide and enduring popularity among all classes of people. He is in all respects richly deserving of the high esteem in which he is universally held.
DR. MELVILLE S. SLAUGHTER .- A well-known and prominent osteo- path of Webb City, Dr. Melville S. Slanghter has acquired proficiency in his profession and is enjoying a large and remunerative practice in this part of Jasper county. He was born September 21, 1884, in Colfax, Iowa, the place in which his father, Z. T. Slaughter, first saw the light of this beautiful world. His grandfather, J. F. Slaughter, a pioneer settler of Iowa, was born in 1820, in Ohio and died October 25, 1901, while his wife, Malinda Slaughter, was born in 1819 and died March 4, 1902.
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