USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Vol. II > Part 46
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"No person in Joplin's history was ever more closely connected with the advancement and welfare of the city than was Mr. Young. Although the possessor of a large fortune that would have warranted him in travel- ing extensively and seeing much of the world, Mr. Young confined himself rigidly to his local duties, and he was to be seen almost every working day in the year at his office in the Miners' Bank.
"When the recent money flurry swept the country and it became necessary for Joplin bankers to form a clearing house association and issue paper certificates to take the place of currency, Mr. Young assumed
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the arduous task of signing the thousands of checks that were placed in circulation. This task required hours of tedious labor each day, and for more than a week he worked hour after hour, affixing his signature to thousands of slips of paper."
Mr. Young was prominent and beloved in the many sided life of the city. He took pleasure in his fraternal relations, which extended to the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. He took an enlightened in- terest in local issues, and for the last decade of his life gave heart and hand to the man and measures of the Republican party, previous to which time his convictions had been Democratic. But although intensely in- terested in public affairs, he had never been touched by the desire for public office. He was an elder and trustee of the First Presbyterian church of Joplin, and in the interests of its religious organizations he labored faithfully. In the resolutions presented by the board of trustees upon the lamentable event of his death some idea of his services was given in the paragraph quoted below.
"G. B. Young acted in the dual capacity of member of the board of trustees and as a ruling elder in the session of the same church. It is rarely given to a man to fill two positions so acceptably. He was the link between the active side of the church life and of its spiritual side. He was as keenly alive to the financial needs of the church as he was to the supreme importance of the salvation of souls, and yet he so blended these duties that the church was blessed with success in both lines. All the branches of the church mourn his loss; this board will miss his wise coun- sel, but we are cheered with the thought that he 'fought a good fight,' that he 'kept the faith' and that he has now gone to 'enjoy a crown of righteousness ;' therefore, as we commit his spirit to its Maker, we chant,
'Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace, Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul ; While the stars burn, the moons increase, And the great ages onward roll !' "
His obsequies were conducted in the First Presbyterian church, the Rev. B. M. Shive officiating. Heart failure was the cause of his death, and only the intimate friends and members of his family knew of the dread malady which for several months had afflicted him and endangered his life. To the casual observer he appeared in robust health and, al- though well past the half century mark, his physical condition was ap- parently splendid. His death occurred shortly after his return from Belton, Cass county, Missouri, where he had been at the bedside of his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth (Mullen) Young, a venerable lady, ninety years of age, who had been seriously ill and who had desired his presence. Upon her improvement he returned home.
On the 3d of December, 1879, Mr. Young laid the foundation of an ideally happy life companionship by his marriage to Lillian Darnall, born in Putnam county, Indiana, August 31, 1856, daughter of Francis Marion and Sarah Ann (Maccom) Darnall. The father was a veteran of the Civil war, he having served as captain of one of the companies of an Indiana regiment. He wore the blue for two years, participating in some of the principal engagements of the great conflict of fifty years ago and only withdrew from the service on account of a severe illness caused by the rigors of camp life. The father still survives, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the real estate business for a number of years, but he is now living retired, at the age of eighty years, honored and respected by a large circle of acquaintances.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Young proved the fulfillment of their
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youthful dreams and was further cemented by the birth of three children, two of whom died in childhood. Leora, born August 16, 1882, died May 13. 1890, and Ethel, born June 20, 1885, died July 3, 1890. Victor L., born September 24, 1880, is a resident of Joplin. He married Miss Jessie Bryant. a native of Chicago, and they have one child, Elizabeth, born August 29, 1906. the little maiden being the pride and delight of her grandmother. Victor I. Young had taken his place in the bank before his father's death, and at the time of that sad event he was serving as one of the tellers in the institution.
Mr. and Mrs. Young owned and resided upon the site of the present post office and Bell Telephone building, on the west side of Joplin street, between Third and Fourth streets, their home continuing there for twenty years. Mr. Young and his wife held a secure and admirable place in the best social life of the city, and their home was ever the center of gracious and charming hospitality. After selling this valuable property to the city they erected a magnificent home at 307 Moffett street, where the widow resides.
Mr. Young was known as Greene B. Young, seldom using his full name or his middle initial. It cannot but be fitting to conclude this brief review of the life of a splendid citizen with the editorial which appeared in the Joplin Daily Globe upon the occasion of his death and which comes from the pen of one who knew him well and who had had an opportunity to become fully cognizant of his worth.
"The death of G. B. Young yesterday morning means a greater loss to this city than the community as a whole appreciates-a greater loss than many who were intimately associated with the dead man fully realize. And because of this, Mr. Young's death in a eivie sense is most untimely.
"When a man has spent his active business life in a city and has come to the whitened years and into considerable material success, it is trite to say that in his death a loss has been sustained. That is an obvious fact. In the case of Mr. Young the degree of loss is heightened by reason of his attitude toward the community, an attitude that was not generally apparent.
"G. B. Young was widely known. As he walked along the streets it seemed as if he had a nodding acquaintance with almost everyone he met. He was a successful man. He had done things. He had made an im- print upon many enterprises. He was active in the affairs of the church of which he was a member. By all these tokens he was a prominent citizen.
"Whether or not the spirit of civic altruism, the keener recognition of individual obligation to the public weal, comes into fuller assertion only in the retrospective days, we do not know. But it has happened to be a rather special privilege to know that Mr. Young had arrived at the point where the period of his great usefulness as a citizen had begun. ITis in- dividual fight for fortune in the hard, compelling fashion was over. It had been fought and won. And he had begun to think along those broad, upbuilding ways that subordinate self to the great general good. He had begun to think of what he could do for Joplin.
"It is for this reason that the obituarian, writing in an impersonal sense, must pronounce his death untimely and must feel that calm regret experienced in the contemplation of fine achievements planned. What a splendid thing it is that we live in an institutional sphere, where men can and do grow into such stature as G. B. Young had grown into. It is a lustrons commentary upon our proclaimed faith in liberty, equality and fraternity that this is so. The sorrow that Providence denied him the time to round out nobly a life well spent is gently tempered by the
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thought that he has come to the threshold of that opportunity fully and ambitiously prepared."
THE JOPLIN NEWS HERALD, published by the News Herald Publishing Company, has the distinction of being the oldest newspaper printed in Joplin. The officers of the company are P. E. Burton, president; O. D. Royse, vice-president ; J. F. Farrar, secretary-treasurer; who serve with John R. Holmes and Luther McGeehee as directors. The News Herald carries the dispatches of the Associated Press, covers the surrounding distriet with its news and circulation and is printed every afternoon ex- cepting Saturday and Sunday and also issues a large Sunday morning edition. P. E. Burton is editor and J. F. Farrar, business manager.
The present publication, as may be seen from the double nomencla- ture, first started from the establishment of the Joplin Evening News, which was begun by Peter Schnur in the fall of 1872. After Harrison took the presidency in 1889, Mr. Schnur was appointed postmaster and he sold the paper to HI. L. Crittenden. Mr. Schnur died in Joplin in 1907, after marching in a parade. Mr. Crittenden is now living in Oklahoma.
The Herald was started by A. W. Carson in 1876 as a Democratic morning paper. The New's was a Republican evening paper. Mr. Carson sold to W. F. Snyder in 1888. Thomas Connor, who was interested in the property, dictated its policy. He secured the appointment of Mr. Snyder as postmaster in 1893 and about the end of Snyder's term as postmaster in 1897 he sold the Herald to J. I. Geddes and Captain Frank Eberly. They sold the Herald in less than a year to W. A. Robie of Topeka.
With the issues of Saturday, March 3, 1900, the News and Herald ceased to exist and were consolidated in the News Herald, the first is- sue being printed March 4, 1900. At the time of the consolidation Fred L. Cowles was editor and Hale Sturges, business manager of the Herald. The officers of the new company were: Fred L. Cowles, manager; H. H. Sturges, president ; Bart B. Howard, secretary ; Hale Sturges, treas- urer. In March, 1903, M. W. Hutchinson, of Kansas City, bought the News Herald. He sold July 1, 1905, to P. E. Burton and J. S. Farish, of St. Louis, who organized the corporation.
JOHN JAY WOLFE .- The career of John J. Wolfe, who has gained marked distinction as a lawyer and public official at Joplin, Missouri, is a splendid example of what may be accomplished by young manhood that is consecrated to ambition and high purposes. He is a lawyer, and a self- made one at that, and is recognized throughout this community for his high order of ability and his conscientious dealings with his clients. His start in getting his legal education was beset with difficulties, and many young men in similar circumstances would have become discouraged and left the field, but the obstacles, instead of discouraging Mr. Wolfe, spurred him onward, giving him a momentum and force which have re- sulted since the period of his first struggles in steady progress and suc- cess, and have brought him the esteem of both the judiciary and the as- sociate attorneys.
John J. Wolfe was born in Scott county, Virginia, on the 17th of March, 1875, and he is a son of Joseph B. Wolfe, a native of Charlottes- ville, Virginia, and a physician and surgeon by profession. Dr. Wolfe was engaged in the work of his chosen vocation in Scott county, Virginia, for a period of forty years, and he was widely renowned in the Old Do- minion commonwealth as a man possessed of innate talent and acquired ability along the line of one of the most helpful professions to which a
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man may devote his energies. He was summoned to the life eternal in 1906, at the venerable age of seventy-five years. The mother of him to whom this sketch is dedicated was Miss Sarah Wilson in her girlhood days, and she was born in Virginia, of Scotch-Irish descent. She is now living with her son John J. at Joplin.
The seventh in order of birth in a family of nine children, John J. Wolfe received his preliminary educational training in the public schools or his native place and in the Country Academy in Scott county. Sub- sequently he taught school for a period in order to obtain funds with which to defray his expenses as a student in Emory & Henry College, and later at Richmond College at Richmond, Virginia. During the year 1895 and 1896 he was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools at Jefferson City, Missouri, and in the next year he was matriculated as a student in the Richmond, Virginia, Law School, in which excellent in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898, duly re- ceiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws. Immediately after graduation he journeyed to Joplin, Missouri, where he entered upon the active prac- tice of his profession and where his success has been on a parity with his well directed efforts. Here he has built up a large and representative clientage and he has figured prominently in many important litigations in the state and federal courts.
In his political convictions Mr. Wolfe is a stanch advocate of the prin- ciples and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor and he has long been a prominent and influential factor in connection with publie affairs in this city. In 1910 he was nominated, without opposi- tion, as a candidate for representative in the state legislature, but failed of election to this office by a small margin, his legislative district being largely Republican. He has been decidedly active in politics and has im- pressed himself forcefully on the community since his arrival in this place. The Joplin Daily Globe said of him,-"He is a lawyer of solid and splendid ability and is known in the profession as a man who main- tains the old ideals of the law." Just how he is regarded both as a Demo- crat and as a citizen is shown in his election to membership in the city council, from the seventh ward, when it was Republican by a decisive majority. As an alderman he fulfilled the expectations of his constituents and fully justified the confidence bestowed in him by his supporters and friends. After serving for one term in the council he was appointed city counselor without a dissenting voice, which place he filled for a period of two years. In that office he gave the people of Joplin service of a high and valuable caliber-a service marked by diligence and unusual discernment.
In July, 1898, at Rogersville, Tennessee, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Wolfe to Miss Grace Henderson, who was reared and educated in Virginia and who was called to the great beyond in 1900. She was a woman of gracious personality and broad human sympathy, deeply he- loved by all with whom she came in contact. In his religious faith Mr. Wolfe is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a man of brilliant attainments, is well read both in legal and literary lore, and is withal a student of man, possessing a rare in- sight into their natures. He is held high in the regard of his fellow citi- zens at Joplin, where his prestige as a lawyer and business man is of the most significant order.
ARTHUR ROZELLE, journalist, politician, member of various fraternal orders and an all around good fellow, is perhaps one of the most popular men in the county. Whether journalism suggests the name of Rozelle
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or the name of Rozelle suggests journalism is a matter of no moment, but it is a fact that from his youth Arthur Rozelle has been most closely con- nected with newspaper work. His manner of meeting people is so genial that he readily makes friends and by reason of his many sterling qualities he is able to retain the friendships thus formed. Nature has lavishly bestowed on him many talents, which he has most painstakingly culti- vated to their fullest extent.
Jonathan Rozelle, the father of Arthur Rozelle, was born in 1834 in the state of Pennsylvania, where he spent the early years of his life and he there met and afterwards married Teressa Rosencranz. On the 28th day of November, 1859, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, a little boy, Arthur, was born to them. They were as proud of him as any fond par- ents could be and built many air castles in regard to his future, and, un- like most parents, their dreams were destined to be fulfilled, to a very great extent. When Arthur was about two years old his father and mother removed to Ohio and there located valuable lands on which they settled, but they did not live there very long without interruption, as Jonathan Rozelle enlisted with the Sixtieth Ohio Regiment early in the Civil war; however, he was not long in the army, as he was injured and honorably dismissed from service. He then returned home to his family in Ohio, but did not feel content to settle down there, so he moved to Iowa, where he improved several farms. He later moved to Nebraska where he conducted a stock farm, raising stock on a large scale. Ever on the alert to get more land, he acquired a section two and a half miles outside of Oklahoma City, just at the time when Oklahoma was opening up, and with an eye to the great boom which he foresaw was coming he purchased considerable property from the early settlers. His judgment was not at fault, as the boom came and he was able to sell his land at immense profit ; so great was his shrewdness and insight that it was the rarest thing for him to lose on any of his ventures. He died at the age of seventy-seven, having accumulated a large fortune.
Arthur Rozelle, whose life we are sketching, received his early educa- tion in the country schools of Page county, Iowa, and continued his studies at Amity College, Iowa. Upon leaving school he taught for a short time in Page county, but his tastes and abilities were literary rather than pedagogical and when the opportunity came for him to go into journalistic work he grasped the chance and started a newspaper at Coin, Iowa. This paper was launched under the title of the Coin Eagle; for several years it soared higher and higher, until at the end of ten years, when Arthur Rozelle was thirty-two years old, it seemed best for him to take the excellent offer made him to sell out his Eagle. After looking over the journalistic field he started The Independent at Tarkio, Missouri, and remained with the paper for five years, putting into it all the intelligent thought and enthusiastic care of which he was capable. At the end of five years he sold The Independent and went to Lamar, Missouri, where he bought the Lamar Leader, already a flourishing paper, but he raised its standard considerably during the five years he owned it. For a year after his connection with the Leader had ceased Mr. Rozelle was not actively engaged in any journalistie work, but the call of the press was so strong and his temperament so active that he could not remain idle for any length of time. He decided to come to Webb City and buy up the Daily Register. Of his work on this paper it is superfluous to speak, as the present broad-minded, flourishing condi- tion of the Register speaks for itself.
In 1897, a year saddened by the death of his mother, Arthur Rozelle married Miss Pauline Stone, of St. Louis, Missouri, a relative of Senator Stone of Missouri. Their wedded life was happy but brief, as on March
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24. 1899, Mrs. Rozelle died. On February 26, 1908, Arthur Rozelle was married to Miss Alice Cresswell, daughter of Judge and Mrs. E. Cress- well of Webb City ; on December 13th of the same year Arthur Cresswell Rozelle was born, but he was only permitted to gladden their hearts for seven months, when he died. The void left by the loss of their little boy can never be filled, but the advent of a baby daughter. Alice Undine Rozelle, was a source of great comfort to them.
Like all newspaper men, Mr. Rozelle is a politician, and in 1897, the year of his first marriage and of his mother's death, he was appointed labor commissioner unde Governor Lon. V. Stevens, which office he held one term. For eight years Mr. Rozelle was a member of the Populist National Committee, also chairman of the Missouri State Committee for five years. It was during his term of office that the Populist party in Missouri reached its high-water mark of over forty-two thousand votes.
Mr. Rozelle is a member of four fraternal orders, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and the Eagles. In each one of these orders he has done excellent work. Among newspaper men Mr. Rozelle is very well known and is regarded by them as a most able writer, strong in his con- victions, without being either narrow-minded or rabid. He is anxious to investigate any new ideas that may be brought before his notice and in his religious belief he is a Theosophist.
As a man of culture and business ability Mr. Rozelle is respected by all his numerons associates ; as a friend of the people he is admired by the laboring class to a unit, and as a true-hearted, sympathetic, vet strong, vigorous gentleman, he is loved by all who know him.
JAMES T. TURK .- A well-known and highly-esteemed citizen of Jop- lin, James T. Turk, holds high rank among the leading real estate deal- ers of this section of Jasper county and has valuable interests in the "ity in which he resides. He has the distinction of having been the first white child born in Bremer county, Iowa, where his birth occurred on June 1, 1855, and where his father, Jeremialı Turk, was a pioneer settler. He was of pure Dutch ancestry on the paternal side of the house, his grandfather having immigrated from Holland to this country, locating first in New England, and thence going to Chenango county, New York. On the maternal side, he is of English descent, his grand- father, Tennant Peck, having come to the United States from England and taken up his home in New York.
Jeremiah Turk was born June 2, 1818, in Greene county, New York, where his early life was spent. In 1853, accompanied by his wife, he journeyed leisurely across the country with a team to Iowa and en- tered two hundred and forty acres of Congress land in Bremer county, where he cleared and improved a homestead. Subsequently coming to Missouri, he was an early settler of Jasper county, where he became one of the leading farmers and stock-raisers of his community and prom- inent in public affairs, holding various town and county offices. He died at his home in Joplin, June 4, 1897, at seventy-nine years of age. Ile married in the town of Sehuyler. Watkins county, New York. in 1852, Eliza Peck, who was born in 1821 and died June 10, 1901. She was a daughter of Tennant Peck and belonged to a family of prominence.
The subject was in his fourteenth year when, in 1868, his parents settled in Jasper county, Missouri, ere the town of Joplin had been conceived. He attended school first in the log cabin near Castle Rock, there finishing the primer and second reader and afterwards going to Easttown two terms. Becoming familiar with agricultural pursuits on the home farm, he embarked in the dairy business at the age of eighteen
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years, and conducted it successfully for seven seasons. Selling out, he bought land in Galena township and was there successfully and profit- ably engaged in farming and mining for ten years. Mr. Turk, who has ever been among the foremost in establishing beneficial enterprises was one of the incorporators and the first treasurer of the special road com- mission. He was made foreman on road construction, a position which he held until the completion of the work, and it is largely through the efforts of him and his associates that the public highways of this sec- tion of the county are in such a satisfactory condition. After his re- turn from California, where he went to recuperate after the completion of the road, Mr. Turk, in partnership with his son-in-law, L. L. Travis, opened a real estate agency in Joplin and has since carried on a large and remunerative business as a dealer in realty, making a specialty of subdivisions.
Mr. Turk married, March 3, 1878, in Joplin, Emma Grant, a daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Benson Grant and a second cousin of General U. S. Grant. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Turk, namely : Georgie D., born December 2, 1879, is the wife of D. C. Eels, of El Paso, Texas, and has two children, Lorine and Claude Sidney. Grace, born August 6, 1882, married L. L. Travis, of Joplin, and has three children, Harry, Eugene and Emma June. Dorothy, born October 39, 1885, is the wife of L. Imgram, of San Diego, California, and has two children, Irene and Ada. James Earl, born April 23. 1888, and now associated with the Manhattan Construction Company, married Ida Pre and they have three children, Beatrice, Laura and Nadene. Evadna, the youngest child, born March 9, 1895, is a pupil in the Joplin high school.
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