USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 43
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Samuel C. Boggess, Junior, received his early education in the common schools of West Virginia. When he was fourteen years old his father died and the following year he went with his mother to Carthage, Missouri, arriving here in 1889. They had very little money and it was necessary for him to at once start to earn money to help his mother. He was apprenticed to a carpenter in Carthage and learned the trade thoroughly. At the same time he attended night school, to better fit himself for his battle with the world. He soon decided that he did not want to be a carpenter,-not that he felt it to be beneath him, as who can say that one business is more commendable than another? It is how well we do our work and the motive behind it that gauge its intrinsic value. The work did not, however, satisfy his nat- ural tastes and abilities. He thought he should like to be a lawyer and entered the offices of MeReynolds & Haliburton, two well known attorneys of Carthage. He took charge of their abstract and title business and also served as bookkeeper. He left this firm and went to Galena, Kansas, and engaged in mining. He worked and prospected at the same time. He stayed there for three years and was fairly success- ful in his prospecting. He decided to return to Carthage and engage in the loan and insurance business. He accordingly bought out the Woodford Shannon Agency and conducted the business for a time. He was successful, but his thoughts were on mining. He sold out onee more and began prospecting and mining. For the next seven years he spent his time in developing and selling mines in Missouri. At the end of that time he organized the Boggess Loan Company, which was incorporated in 1910 with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. Dr. C. B. Guinn was the president of this company. At the expiration of one year Mr. Boggess bought out all of the other stockholders with the exception of the two shares which are held by Mr. James Luke, the president. Mr. B. A. Ash is the vice president and Mr. Boggess the secretary and treasurer. Mr. Boggess is also interested in a number of other large mines and mining companies. He is a director of the I. P. Royalty & Mining Company. He is director and stockholder of the famous Icc Plant & Mining Company, one of the best mines in the Webb City district. He is a director and stockholder of the Fullerton Mining Company, of the Serogan Mining Company and of the Gibson Mining
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Company. In addition to these mining connections he is a director of the Central National Bank of Carthage.
On March 8, 1898, Mr. Boggess was married to Miss Kate Knight at Carthage, Missouri. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel D. Knight. They came from England direct to Carthage and are a prominent family in Carthage to-day. Mrs. Boggess is in every way qualified to fill the position which her husband has made. Mr. and Mrs. Boggess have had four children: Luke, born April 5, 1899, and now attending school in Carthage, Edith, born August 15, 1906; Hale, born September 27, 1900, and died December 8, 1900; and Elisabeth, born July 5, 1904, lived but a few months.
Mr. Boggess is a man who is intensely interested in a variety of things outside of his business. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Y. M. C. A. at Carthage, Missouri, and is greatly liked by the young men. He has a great influence for good with them. He is a Democrat in politics and, although he is always most enthu- siastic at election times, he has as yet no desire to hold office himself. He and Mrs. Boggess are members of the Methodist church and most active workers. It would be impossible for a man of Mr. Boggess' personality to be anything but popular wherever he might live. He has acquaintances all over the county and state and among these are many who are proud to consider themselves his friends. He is a man whom it would be hard to do without.
GRANVILLE P. ASHCRAFT .- On July 24, 1911, occurred the death of one of the most prominent and highly honored of the citizens of Webb City and southern Missouri, Granville P. Ashcraft, who for some years had been living retired after a long and highly successful career in min- ing and other occupations in three of the great states of the American Union. Mr. Ashcraft was born in Cass county, Missouri, on December 13, 1842, and was the son of Eli and Abigail (Plummer) Ashcraft, early pioneers of that portion of the state. Both parents were born and reared near Louisville, Kentucky, and came to Missouri in 1836. The region in which they located was at that time in its primeval wildness, with all its resources untouched and all its possibilities yet to be developed. The redman still roamed over its expanse and fierce beasts of prey were still denizens of its forests and caves. They located on a tract of land whose soil was still virgin to the plow, erected a log cabin in the woods, broke up the land and began the cultivation of what is now one of the richest and most valuable farms in Cass county. Together they braved all the perils, suffered all the privations and overcame all the hardships of frontier life. They reared their family as best they could and con- tributed every force in their power to the advancement of the region in all departments of mental, moral and material progress then open to endeavor. They remained on the first farm ten years and then re- moved to another locality. But their first love abode with them and they soon returned to Cass county. There they remained until death ended their useful labors, the father passing away in 1856 and the mother in 1844.
Granville P. Ashcraft secured his education in the primitive schools of his boyhood on the frontier, attending one in Bates county for a few years during the winter months. But the exigencies of his situation forced him to go to work for himself at an early age and he obtained employment in a saw mill, driving the horses which furnished the power to the mill. His wages were but ten dollars a month and the slender chance of advancement induced him to quit his job at the end of four Vol. II-19
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months. He drew his pay and went to the nearest town suitable for the purpose and bought a suit of store clothes.
This incident is mentioned to show his self-reliance and his ambi- tion for a better condition in life, which impelled him to action even in his boyhood. His was the first suit of ready-made clothing worn in that portion of the state by any of its residents, and it gave him a promi- nence in the neighborhood that was not unpleasing to him. For he al- ready felt stirring within him the forces of destiny and believed that it was possible for him to achieve a considerable measure of success in whatever he might undertake or find to do.
In 1859, in company with one of his brothers, he started to Califor- nia over the Sante Fe trail, the trip consuming five months and almost every mile of it being beset with danger and hardship. But the young adventurers persevered and at length reached Stockton, California, in good health. Mr. Ashcraft allowed himself but a few hours rest. then went to work as a painter, having acquired some knowledge of the craft in his previous varied experiences. It was not long, however, before the prevailing fever of the Pacific coast region attacked him, and he turned his attention to prospecting and mining. Being unsuccessful in his own ventures, he took employment under Mr. Fair and Mr. Mackey, and was one of the four men who dug the first shaft on the famous Comstock lode, which made those gentlemen multi-millionaires a few years later. While working for them he was intimately associated with some of the men who became world-renowned for their mining operations in after years. He worked side by side with them in the early days of California, sharing the fortunes and misfortunes of the period.
In 1864 Mr. Asheraft started for home, journeying by way of Den- ver. When he reached that camp he determined to remain a while and resume his mining operations in the mountains in the vicinity. He was moderately successful, but the longing for Missouri had possession of him, and in 1872 he returned to the state and took up his residence at Joplin, at that time a straggling hamlet containing but a few residences and business houses. Again he turned to mining as an avenue to ad- vancement. He leased some of the Webb land, his excellent judgment leading him to the selection of a tract rich in lead ore. The returns were immediate and considerable. During the first week of his work he took ont fifteen thousand pounds of lead ore, it being the first lead turned in from the famous Webb mines and was almost entirely free from alloy.
In partnership with Mr. Daugherty he worked this mine two years. Then he and Mr. Henderson bought a tract of forty acres that looked good to them, which they later divided. They were not disappointed in their expectations, both becoming wealthy from the yield of this forty acres. Mr. Henderson sold his half of it for forty thousand dollars, but no offer would induce Mr. Asheraft to part with his. But he did not confine his operations to this tract. He continued to develop and mine new tracts until 1905, when he retired from all active work to spend the remainder of his days in his beautiful home on South Penn street in Webb City. He was one of the large property owners of the section.
On October 30, 1874, Mr. Ashcraft was united in marriage with Miss Theresa Belle Baker, a native of Springfield, Illinois. They became the parents of three children : Mrs. Bernice Asheraft Bureh ; Mrs. Allen Ashcraft Hardy and Eli Ashcraft. Mrs. Burch is one of the leaders in the social circles of Webb City and Carterville and an excellent business woman. She is employed as bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Carterville, a lady of brilliant attainments in scholarship and literature and of superior mental force in many lines of development. Mrs. Hardy
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was the first child born in Webb City. She has three children, her sons Granville and Joseph and her danghter Emily. Eli Ashcraft is a prosperous and progressive farmer in Stone county. He is married and has two children,-Virginia and Granville P. Ashcraft, Jr.
In political allegiance the subject of this memoir was allied with the Democratic party, but although he was true and loyal to his organiza- tion and effective in the service he rendered it, he never sought or de- sired public office. He was a charter member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Webb City and was its vice-president from its organization in 1895 until his demise. Ile was everywhere esteemed highly as a man and a citizen; heartily admired for the enterprise, courage, self-reliance and unyielding perseverance for which he was ever conspicuous; and revered for the service he rendered to every lo- cality in which he lived and labored. His memory will long remain un- dimmed in the community in which he was so valued a factor.
JOHN T. STEELE has been identified with Webb City, Missouri, as one of its representative business men for the past dozen years. A brief sketch of his life and parentage is as follows :
John T. Steele was born September 7, 1859, at Boonville, Cooper county, Missouri, son of John A. and Eliza Jane (Batten) Steele and grandson of William Steele, who was of Irish parentage.
William Steele was in some respects a remarkable man. He was born in North Carolina in December, 1800, and died January 3, 1897. Thus his life spanned nearly a hundred years. During both Mexican and the Civil wars he shouldered arms and acted the part of a brave soldier; in time of peace he followed the quiet pursuits of farming and stock raising. He was a lover of horses and very fond of horseback riding. Even after he had entered his nineties it was not unusual for him to ride on horseback from fifteen to twenty-five miles in a day, and he rode a frisky horse a distance of twenty miles at the age of eighty-seven years. In his old age he was able to read and write without the use of glasses, and his aim with the rifle was sure. He had the cheerful habit; he never let dull care worry him. And as a result of his well ordered life, he enjoyed in his old age a well pre- served physical and mental balance. It is related of him that when he was a young man, in East Tennessee, about 1824, he ordered a suit of clothes from a tailor under whom Andrew Johnson, afterward presi- dent of the United States, was then an apprentice, and who made the clothes. Steele objected to them because they did not fit. and words with the apprentice followed which resulted in a quarrel and a fistic encounter in which Johnson was whipped.
John A. Steele, the father of John T., was born in East Tennessee August 25, 1835, but since 1842 has been a resident of Missouri. Farm- ing has been his life occupation, and for the past forty-five years he has lived on his homestead in Cooper county. His wife, Eliza Jane (Batten) Steele, was born in Howard county, Missouri, July 31, 1842, the daughter of a Pennsylvania-Dutch farmer who had settled in Howard county among the pioneers of that locality.
John T. Steele grew up on his father's farm, receiving his early edneation in the country schools of Cooper county, and later attending the Collegiate Institute at Pilot Grove, where he was a student up to the time he was twenty-two years of age. Then for a period of twelve years he was engaged in teaching school. On retiring from the school room he turned to the business of undertaking. He studied embalming at Pilot Grove and engaged in business there, where he remained for six years and a half, removing thence to California, Missouri, where
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the next two and a half years were spent, and in April, 1899, he moved to Joplin. At the last named place, however, he remained only six months, and from there came to Webb City. Here from October 21, 1899, to September 15, 1905, he was undertaker and bookkeeper with the Lowe Furniture Company. Then, with his brother-in-law, Mr. C. D. Sims, he purchased the undertaking department, and the business was continued under the name of the J. T. Steele Undertaking Com- pany. This partnership lasted until February 22, 1909, when Mr. Sims sold his interest to Mr. George E. Bradberry, Mr. Steele's present part- ner. the firm name remaining the same. They maintain handsomely equipped parlors for conducting private services at 120 North Webb street. and their establishment ranks as one of the leading ones in Webb City.
Mr. Steele has always been a conscientious voter and casts his fran- chise with the Democratic party, but he has never taken an active part in politics. He was made a Mason in Cooper Lodge, No. 36, Boonville, Missouri, and afterward had the pleasure of helping to make his father a member of the same lodge. He is a past master of both the Pilot Grove Lodge, No. 277, and the Webb City Lodge, No. 512, F. and A. M. Also he is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Eastern Star, and is a past worthy patron of the latter. Other fraternal organizations to which he belongs are the Royal Neighbors and the Modern Woodmen of America. For nine years he has served as clerk of Camp No. 3218, M. W. A. Mr. Steele's religious creed is that of the Baptist church, in which he fills the position of deacon.
On August 27, 1887, near Versailles, Morgan county, Missouri, Mr. Steele married Miss Dora E. Sims, and they are the parents of five children : Alma, at this writing a student in Columbia University, and Annette, Lillian, Grace and Elizabeth, at home. Mrs. Steele was born in Morgan county, July 30, 1864, a daughter of Rev. James E. and Anna Sims, the former a native of Morgan county, the latter of Simpson county, Kentucky. Her father, a retired Baptist minister, is now a resident of Webb City; her mother died at Versailles, March 27, 1900. Mr. Steele and his family reside at 1227 West Dougherty street.
SAMUEL T. TAMBLYN .- One of the most popular and valuable of those representative citizens connected with the mining industry of Jasper county is Samuel T. Tamblyn, ore buyer for that important concern, the Matthiessen & Hegeler Smelting Company. His identification with Joplin dates from the year 1884 and in the intervening time he has met with entire success and has won the consideration and respect of his associ- ates. Mr. Tamblyn is of English origin, both his father and mother hav- ing been born in the Mother Country. The former, William Tamblyn, was born in Cornwall, England, in 1837 and came to America when about twenty-one years of age. Hc located in Wisconsin on a farm, but eventually became an employe of the Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Com- pany and remained with them until his demise, which occurred in La Salle, Illinois, in 1904. He was foreman of the zine furnace of the above company for a number of years and was highly respected and well known. In his early youth in England he had found employment in the pottery factories. The mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Skidmore, was born in England in 1839 and was married in 1858, coming to the United States with her husband shortly afterward. She died at LaSalle, Illinois, in 1881.
The birth of Mr. Tamblyn occurred at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, September 29, 1863. He received his education at LaSalle, Illinois, where his parents removed when he was still very young. When fifteen
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years of age he shouldered his share in the responsibility of livelihood making and found a position in the zinc smelter at LaSalle, known as the Kinsman Smelter. When later this was purchased by Matthiessen & Hegeler he continued in their employ. Proving faithful in little things he was given more and more to do and his usefulness became of the high- est character. His employers eventually sent him to Jasper county, Missouri, in order to be close to the mines in this section of the state and because of his knowledge of ore he was made ore buyer, a most import- ant office. He located at Webb City to buy "jack" or zinc blend ore, a product which enters largely into the considerations of all the large mine owners in this section. He located in Joplin in April, 1884, and has here played a useful and prominent part. At that time Joplin had a population of nine thousand people and Webb City was scarcely large enough to be called a village. He has had the pleasure of witnessing their remarkable growth and of contributing his share to the same.
On April 30, 1906, Mr. Tamblyn established a household of his own and a congenial life companionship by his union with Miss Cornelia Myers, of Findlay, Ohio, daughter of Michael and Lucy P. Myers. The father, who was a prominent merchant of the Buckeye state, is deceased, but the mother survives him and makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Tamblyn at Joplin. A little daughter has been born to the subject and his wife-Ruth Viola, whose birthdate was February 28, 1911.
Mr. Tamblyn is one of a family of five children. His elder sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Murley, is a widow residing at Englewood, Chicago, and her three children are Arthur, Roy and Grace. The other, Edith E., is the wife of Gustavus B. Berggren, of Indianapolis, Indiana, who is as- sociated with the New York Life Insurance Company. His brothers are Frank and Joseph Tamblyn. The former resides in LaSalle county, Il- linois, and he has four children, all daughters, namely : Margaret, Ruth, Dorothy, and Edith Mae. Joseph, twin brother of the foregoing, is a carpenter at LaSalle, Illinois.
In his political faith Mr. Tamblyn is Republican and has subscribed to the policies and principles of the "Grand Old Party" since his ear- liest voting days. He belongs to the Presbyterian church and to the clubs connected with the church. In addition to the business interests already noted he is a director of the Conqueror Trust Company and a stock-holder in the Vesuvius Manufacturing Company, in which he holds the office of secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Tamblyn is a true disciple of Izaak Walton and whatever time he can find to spare in seasonable weather he devotes to fishing. He is a man of pleasant social attributes and has many friends.
JOSEPH R. LOWE .- For thirty-five years the subject of this sketch has been a resident of Webb City, Missouri, and over thirty years of this time he has been identified with the retail furniture business here, today being at the head of one of the largest furniture establishments in the county.
J. R. Lowe was born in Barren county, Kentucky, February 9, 1851, youngest of the family of seven children-five daughters and two sons- of Caleb and Polly (Crabtree) Lowe, both natives of Kentucky, the former of German extraction and the latter of Irish; both deceased. Caleb Lowe was born in 1810, and passed his life on a Kentucky farm. His father was a Virginian.
In his native county J. R. Lowe was reared to farm life, and was en- gaged in farming there until he reached his twenty-fifth year, his educa- tional advantages in youth being limited to the country schools near his home. He came to Missouri as a mining prospector, landing in Webb
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City on October 10, 1876, with twenty-five dollars in his pocket as his total capital, and with this for a start he worked his way up to his pres- ent substantial position among the leading business men of Webb City. For three years he was successfully engaged in mining. On May 2, 1881, he entered the retail furniture business. The Hancock & Howe Furni- ture Store had been established here about a year previous to that time, and Mr. Howe was succeeded by Mr. Lowe, the firm name being changed to Hancock & Lowe, and as such continued for the next eight years. Then Mr. Lowe sold his interest to Mr. J. W. Aylor, after which, in com- pany with Mr. Verbrick, he engaged in business under the name of Lowe & Verbrick. In 1889 the company was incorporated, with Mr. Lowe as secretary and general manager and Mr. E. T. Webb, president, and the name was changed to the Lowe Furniture Company. Subsequently Mr. Lowe purchased the stock of the other members of the campany, and is today sole owner of the establishment, which is one of the largest of its kind in the county.
Mr. Lowe resides with his wife at 309 Joplin street. He married, March 16. 1870, in Barren county, Kentucky, Miss Almyra Huckebey, a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of William Huckebey. They have no children.
Both Mr. Lowe and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in which he has long occupied the position of steward. Ile maintains membership in the fraternal orders of Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World, and, politieally, he affiliates with the Democratic party, not, however, being aetive in politics. As a busi- ness man and citizen, his life has been such that he is justly entitled to the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens.
HENRY A. JACKSON .- For nearly twenty-five years a resident of Jas- per county, Missouri, and for six years identified with the business ae- tivities of Webb City as the proprietor of a market at 111 West Daugh- erty street, Henry A. Jackson has a suburban home at Oakland which is one of the finest-if, indeed, not the finest-home in Jasper county. Briefly, some of the facts concerning his life are as follows :
Henry A. Jackson is a Hoosier by birth. He was born in Hartford City. Indiana, October 12, 1865, and his paternal ancestry traces back to Scotch and Dutch pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania. His father, Alfred A. Jackson, was born in Ohio, served in the Union army during the Civil war, and by occupation was a farmer. His mother was before marriage Miss Neoma Neal. She died in 1868. Up to the time he was sixteen, Henry A. attended publie school at Hartford City and assisted in the farm work. He continued at home, working on the farm a year after he had left school, and then, with three dollars in his pocket, he started out to make his own way in the world. He traveled throughout the West, stopping at various cities and towns and working at the car- penter's trade. In this way he picked up a practical knowledge of the trade and soon commanded journeyman's wages and also engaged in con- traet work. Ile worked at the earpenter's trade until 1896. He lived in Wichita, Kansas, two years, and removed from there to Carthage, Jasper county, Missouri, in March, 1888. While in Carthage he en- gaged in the retail grocery business, and later had a meat market there, which he sold in 1905, just previous to his coming to Webb City. Here he opened a meat market at No. 111 West Daugherty street, which he has since successfully conducted, it being the finest market in the city and, indeed, in the county. His handsome country home at Oakland is surrounded by ten acres of beautifully kept grounds, and both its in-
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terior and exterior appointments are indicative of taste and refinement as well as prosperity.
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