USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 102
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
With the coming of Mr. Morgan to Milan he associated himself in the mining business, and it was not until 1912 that he engaged in a partnership with Mr. Weminer to carry on a garage and auto livery busi- ness. The firm use for the accommodation of their business a building with a floor space of forty by sixty feet, well arranged for the display of their cars, and accoutred in the most up-to-date manner for the conduct of a general garage business. The popularity of the Ford car in Milan and vicinity is due entirely to the excellent salesmanship of, the firm which represents it, and they have enjoyed a pleasurable suc- cess and prosperity in the business since their establishment in 1912.
In 1912 Mr. Morgan was married in Sullivan county to Miss G. F. Boyd, and their pleasant home is maintained in Milan, where they have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Mr. Morgan is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias, in both of which he is popular and prominent.
N. D. ARNOLD. The business interests of Milan, Missouri, have since 1910 known the activities and influence of N. D. Arnold, in his official connection with the Arnold Lumber Company, a prominent concern in this section of the state in the lumber industry. As a business man of weight and progress, his identification with the city and its manufactur- ing interests has been of value equal to his citizenship in other respects. A man of advanced ideas, firm and pronounced in his convictions, he has lent a quality to the citizenship of the community that has been of the most praiseworthy order, and won for him a secure place in the common regard and esteem of the people.
A native son of Missouri, N. D. Arnold was born in Schuyler county on October 11, 1881, and is the son of Wilson Arnold, also a native of the state and a son of Samuel, one of the pioneers of the Missouri common- wealth. The public schools of his native community supplied such learn- ing of books as Mr. Arnold secured, and did not continue beyond the age of sixteen years. He went to Colorado when he was at that age, and there was occupied variously for some years, eventually becoming engaged in the lumber business. He experienced a pleasing degree of success in all his business ventures, and in 1910 decided to return to his native state and here engage in the lumber business. Milan was the point he settled upon for his headquarters, and in the two years that he has been here he has made rapid strides in the lumber and manu- facturing interests of the district. His firm, known as the Arnold Lum- ber Company, is one of the rapidly growing concerns in the community, and the place carries a large stock of lumber of all kinds, lime, cement and building material of all kinds, including doors, windows, stair rails, etc. A fine three story building houses his establishment, with a rear building 55 x 110 feet in dimension for the handling of lumber. The yard of the firm is located near the southeast corner of the public square. Excellent business methods, added to his sterling character and known reliability, have united to make him one of the solid men of the com- munity from a business viewpoint, and he is making rapid progress in the conduct of his establishment.
In 1905 Mr. Arnold was united in marriage with Miss Mamie Rine- hart, who was born and reared in Knox county, Missouri, but who received the greater part of her advanced education in Quincy, Illinois. They have two sons-Davis and Norman Lee Arnold. The family enjoy the friendship of a large circle of Milan people, where they participate in the best social activities of the community, and where they have come to be held among the representative people of the city. Mr. Arnold is a member of the Modern Woodmen, and is a Democrat.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
JOHN FREDERICK MEYER. The late John Frederick Meyer was justly regarded by his broad circle of friends and acquaintances in Hannibal as an unusually fine example of a self-made man of high character. His commercial and financial successes, his exceptionally superior status from a religious and moral point of view and his successfully reared family-all reflect and will continue to reflect an enviable degree of credit upon the life of this estimable German-born American.
In Hanover, Germany, John F. Meyer was born on September 26, 1848. When he was a child of four years his parents brought him to America ; arriving in this country, they came to Hannibal in November, 1852. The public school of this city provided practical training for this intelligent German boy, who left the schools when eighteen years of age and placed his foot upon the first round of the ladder of his life's successful activities. This first work was the learning of the wagon- maker's trade, an occupation which led to his employment not long after the planing mill of Price and McKnight, on Ninth and Collier streets. Here he worked steadily and effectively for seven years, at the end of which time he resigned his position in order to accept a similar one with J. M. Patton, in whose establishment he remained for twelve years and who promoted him until he had attained to the position of foreman.
At this point, Mr. Meyer's advance, which had from the first been gradual and sure, if inconspicuous, began to be clearly evident. From that time on his life visibly exemplified the worthy rise, through per- severance uprightness and economy, of a faithful but obscure laborer into the ranks of the city's most important business men. He carried on his chief line, that of the planing mill work, meanwhile investing in others. In about the year 1880 he formed a partnership with Henry F. Mangles, for the establishing of a grocery business, the latter member of the firm attending to the active management of the store. In 1888 Mr. Meyer, in conjunction with F. W. G. Fahrenforst, purchased the South Hannibal planing mill. Nine years later he bought out his part- ner's interest, continuing the business under his own name. In 1897 he admitted his nephew, Charles F. Bassen, into the firm The mill was destroyed by fire in 1898, but was rebuilt on the property purchased by Mr. Meyer at Fourth and Church streets. There the business was ex- tended and developed until it has become the leading planing mill and wood working concern in this section of the country.
Meanwhile, his grocery enterprise was not his only secondary busi- ness. In 1894 he entered the dry goods business, buying out Bunch & Foss; in July, 1896, he admitted to partnership E. H. Sonnenberg; today the firm has the largest and most complete stock of dry goods in the city of Hannibal or any other in the surrounding section of the state. Mr. Meyer also entered the banking business, being at one time the president of the old First National Bank and later a director of the International Bank, which has become a part of the Hannibal Trust Company. Another successful business venture was his connection with the Computing Cheese Cutting Company of Anderson, Indiana. He thus . gradually added one commercial responsibility to another, until at the time of his death he held the following business positions of authority : senior member of the firm of J. F. Meyer & Company; active manager and senior member of the firm of Sonnenberg & Meyer; president of the German-American Bank (succeeding William Derwin) ; president of the Hannibal Lumber Company; president of the Mechanics Build- ing and Loan Association ; director of the Marion County Building and Loan Association; and director of the Computing Cheese Cutting Company.
8.F. Meyer
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He was withal a man who found pleasure and a welcome in both fraternal and church activities. He was especially prominent in the lodge of the Knights of Pythias, in which he has held virtually all of the chairs within the gift of the lodge, having also served as local chancellor and as delegate to several sessions of the grand lodge. In the Evangelical Lutheran church he was an elder of many years' serv- ice, being furthermore identified with a large number of the most im- portant committees of the church. In this work he was generous with means, time and energy, for his church and its activities and high motives were truly dear to his heart. In other public work, particularly that of a civic nature, Mr. Meyer was conscientious, but modest. As repre- sentative of his ward he served several times on the city council, but never did he engage in active canvass for office. When, moreover, the nomination for mayor was tendered him, he declined it, preferring to leave conspicuous municipal honors to others. His church, his busi- ness and his home, in addition to minor public duties, gave him his sum of satisfaction.
In his home particularly was Mr. Meyer a man who ever called forth love and admiration. His family was founded in the year 1877, when he was united in marriage to Miss Orinda Katherine Foss. The chil- dren that came to them in the years that followed were six in num- ber. All have lived to grow to maturity, two of them to be associated with their father in business; and all of them, besides Mrs. Meyer, sur- vive the husband and father. Arch F. Meyer has general charge of the dry goods business, from which for some time his father had practically retired, also secretary and treasurer of the J. F. Meyer Manufacturing Company. J. Fred Meyer, second son and fourth in the family line, is president and general manager of the planing mill, also secretary and treasurer of the Hannibal Light Company. The eldest daughter, who is Mrs. Frank Waelder, resides in Hannibal, with her husband and fam- ily. Cyrus Meyer, the youngest of the family, and his sister, Miss Effie, reside with their mother. Miss Aimee is the wife of Mr. J. J. Ross and resides in the City of Mexico in old Mexico.
On November 27, 1908-the date of the thirty-first anniversary of his wedding-Mr. Meyer met with an accident which ultimately caused his death. In crossing one of the runways at his planing mill on South Fourth street, he fell and fractured his limb and ankle in four places. The accident was such a shock to his entire constitution that he never regained his strength. Complications set in, moreover, that made an operation the only condition of his recovery; but his weakness was such that the physicians pronounced him unable to survive surgical treat- ment. He gradually weakened, therefore, although not confined con- stantly to his bed nor to his house. Late in October of the year fol- lowing his accident, Mr. Meyer made a trip to St. Louis for the purpose of listening to an address by President Taft. The occasion was one of professed enjoyment to Mr. Meyer, who made a part of the return jour- ney by motor. On November 1, however, he was obliged to give up, and was again confined to his bed. He died at his home in Hannibal on November 10th, 1909, at the age of sixty-one years, one month and four- teen days. "His demise," said the Hannibal Evening Courier of that date, "is mourned by an entire city, but the example of his life and character will become an enduring monument to his memory. * He passed from life cheerfully, bravely, and without
regret. * * With his passing Hannibal lost one of her foremost citizens, a Christian gentleman of the highest type, and a business man who had no superiors and few equals."
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JOHN M. SUMMERS. The son of a gallant soldier of the Black Hawk war, John M. Summers was one of three brothers who responded to the call of Abraham Lincoln for three hundred thousand men when the War of the Rebellion had its inception, and all three passed unscathed through the bloody conflicts of the entire war period. Of these brothers, Rufus served in the Eighth Illinois Infantry for three years, and is now a resident of Green City, Missouri. Abner enlisted in the Third Illinois Cavalry in 1861, and he is now living in this county, an honored and esteemed citizen. John M. Summers, of this review, enlisted in Novem- ber, 1861, and took an active part in all the movements of his regiment from then until the close of the conflict.
Born on June 11, 1836, in Tazewell county, Illinois, near to the city of Pekin, John M. Summers is the son of James and Jane (Lester) Sum- mers. The father, as has already been mentioned, was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, and was a native son of North Carolina. He and his wife were both of Irish extraction, and the blood of the old Celtic race flows in the veins of the subject. The parents came from North Carolina to Illinois by wagon over the mountains and in the latter named state spent their remaining days. They became the parents of nine children- five sons and four daughters, and of that family, the sons gave worthy account of themselves in the Civil war period, three of them serving throughout its duration.
After the honorable discharge of John M. Summers from the army at the close of the war, he returned to Illinois, and was a resident of that state until he came to Missouri in 1872, locating then in Sullivan county. This district has represented his home since that time, and he is now located within the suburbs of South Milan, where he has a plat of two acres of land and a comfortable residence.
Mr. Summers was married in 1861 to Miss Elizabeth Laramon, who died in this county, and in 1888 Mr. Summers contracted a second mar- riage when Mrs. Emma (Kern) Tonnley, sister of E. G. Kern, a promi- nent contractor of Milan and of whom mention is made on another page of this work, became his wife. She died in 1904, a consistent and conse- crated member of the Presbyterian church, and loved by all for her saintly character. She was a tender wife and mother and left a family of four children : Blanche is a bookkeeper for Poole Brothers; Mary is a popular teacher in the public schools of Milan; John is a carpenter by trade and lives in Milan; Frank, the last born, died young.
The Summers family is one that has always been actively identified with the church and educational interests of their community, and have shared generously in the honor and respect of all who have been brought into contact with them in social or business ways. The son John is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 83, of Milan, and J. M. Summers is the popular commander of the G. A. R., Mccullough Post No. 44, of Milan, Missouri.
C. P. HENRY. The contracting and building business in Milan has had in C. P. Henry one of its ablest exponents, and he has contributed his full quota to the growth and development of the city as such in his capacity of builder during the years that he has been identified with Milan, which number something like a quarter of a century.
Born in Sullivan county, Missouri, on March 15, 1861, Mr. Henry is the son of James Henry, a noted farmer, stock-man and insurance man of the state, who was known far and near for the splendid honesty and integrity of his character. He was a native of Ohio, and there married Lucinda Montgomery. They became the parents of five sons and one daughter. Mr. Henry died in 1896 at seventy-one years of age, and Mrs.
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Henry died when she was seventy-six years of age. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. Mr. Henry was a Republican.
C. P. Henry divided his time between the farm work and his attend- ance at school in his native community until in his teens but it may be said that the best of his education has come to him as result of experi- ence and actual contact with the business world. When about eighteen he engaged in the carpenter trade. He was still in his young man- hood when he began contracting upon his own responsibility, his first operations being in a necessarily small way, but gradually increasing, until now, 'after twenty-six years of building activity in Milan, he is accounted one among the leading builders and contractors in the city. Some of the leading business houses of Milan are monuments of good workmanship and will long reflect credit upon him as their builder, and a correspondingly large proportion of the best residences of the city and surrounding country came into their present state of usefulness through his activities. He employs a force of from three to four men during the summer seasons, and his work is done upon his guarantee that it will be turned over to the owner in a workmanlike and wholly satisfac- tory manner.
Mr. Henry is a man who possesses the strongest convictions, and who is thoroughly honorable and reliable in all his business dealings, a reputa- tion that has won him the respect and confidence of all his customers, as well as of all who have come to know him in any of the relations of life. He is a Republican, like his father was before him and he and his wife are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal church South and are actively interested in all the many good works of that body. He is also a member of the Modern Woodmen.
Mr. Henry married Miss Ella Boyd, born and reared near Milan, Missouri, and they have three children. The eldest son is now twenty- five years of age and he is especially prominent in baseball and athletic circles throughout the country. He is a member of the State Baseball League of Missouri, and has been a member of the Quincy, Illinois, league, and is a player who commands a high salary among the professional ball players of the country. He has played with the state leagues of Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri for the past four years, and is admitted to be one of the phenomenal players of the western leagues. The second son, Henry C., is a machinist in Chicago, Illinois, and has met with a pleas- ing degree of success in his trade since he became identified with it. Eva marred E. W. Holcomb, a machinist of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
EMANUEL G. KERN. The contracting and building industry in this section of the state has been shared in a generous manner by E. G. Kern, who has since 1888 been located in Milan and here has carried on a thriv- ing business in the above named field of activity. Manufacturing, too, has received a goodly share of his attention, much of the material enter- ing into his building work being manufactured by him at this well equipped factory. As a business man and one who has kept alive one of the leading industrial plants in the city, he has added much to the general good of the city, and this quality of citizenship is well supple- mented in him by many other worthy traits that have left their indelible mark upon the welfare of the community.
Mr. Kern was born in Sullivan county, this state, on February 12, 1860, and is the son of Emanuel and Mary M. (Swiggert) Kern, natives of the states of Virginia and Ohio, respectively. Both are now deceased, the father having died at the age of seventy years, and the mother in 1904, when she was seventy-seven years old, her death occurring in Sulli- van county. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and
,
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
she took high place in the regard and esteem of those who shared in their acquaintance. They, became the parents of six children, of which number E. G. Kern of this review was the third born.
Until he reached his early teens, Mr. Kern attended the schools of his native community, but it may be said that the best of his education has come to him as the result of his experience and actual contact with the business world, in which he has achieved so notable a success. Mr. Kern served a full apprenticeship to the trade of a cabinet maker, after which he engaged in carpentering and building on his own responsibility. His business rapidly increased, so that he soon reached the place where he employed a goodly force of men in the conduct of his building business. In addition to that phase of his industry, Mr. Kern some time ago erected a factory and saw mill, where he manufactured all kinds of hard wood lumber, the same being a brick building, two stories in height, and equipped in the most complete and modern manner for the manufactur- ing of high grade hotel, bank, courthouse and business office furniture. He has supplied many of the leading hotels and banks in Northeast Mis- souri with desk furniture and equipment, and in the line of his building, has erected many of the finest residences of the city of Milan. A large force of expert mechanics in his employ adds to the life and activity of the community, and the class and character of the work produced in his plant is such as to add a considerable to the reputation of the city as a manufacturing center.
Mr. Kern is perhaps one of the best known men in this section of the state, where all his products find a ready market, and his credit and standing in the district is of the highest order.
In spite of the busy life which Mr. Kern must inevitably lead, he finds time to indulge in the care and culture of bees, an occupation that is his pet and practically his only hobby. His residence property, which is well situated and finely appointed, has a suitable bee house on the premises, and Mr. Kern has enjoyed exceptional success in his care of the honey bee. A man of the most pleasing manner and personality, well proportioned and imposing in his personal appearance, Mr. Kern is one of the leading figures in the business and social life of the city. He is a Republican and a member of the Knights of Pythias, and a man who has always taken his full share of the burden of civic responsibility, and who may always be depended upon to put his shoulder to the wheel and help on any good and worthy enterprise that is launched in the community for its advancement and uplifting.
PROF. E. B. SEITZ. The business of education has taken the attention of two generations of the family of Seitz and the state of Missouri has witnessed the activities of two of the name, who have given the most praiseworthy service in the field of instruction. The father of E. B. Seitz was Prof. E. B. Seitz, who was long a member of the faculty of the Kirksville Normal, and whose wife was a teacher in the same school. Thus it would seem that the inclination of the subject for the field of pedagogy was a most natural bent, and one that he has in all certainty done well to develop. His superintendency of the schools of Milan was assumed in August, 1905, and has continued without interruption from then until the present time, and his service in that capacity has been one of the highest order, meeting with the approval of the most critical or exacting among the people of Milan.
Prof. Enoch Beery Seitz is a native of the state of Missouri, born in Kirksville, on July 26, 1883. He is the son of E. B. Seitz and Anna (Kerlin) Seitz, both of whom were well known as educators in Kirks- ville, as has already been intimated. Prof. E. B. Seitz was born in
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Fairfield county, Ohio, in the year 1846, and died on October 8, 1887, when he was thirty-seven years of age. He was educated in the Dela- ware University of Ohio, and was a man of excellent intellectual attain- ments. He was a teacher in the public schools of Greenville, Ohio, for several years, and had at the time of his death been chosen as the head of the department of mathematics in the University of Texas. He had been a member of the faculty of the Kirksville Normal for four years when he was stricken by death. He was known widely in Missouri as one of the most successful among the younger educators, and a brilliant career in that field was cut off when death claimed him. He left four sons. Ray is a resident of New Madrid, Missouri; W. K., of St. Louis, Missouri, and president of the Missouri Construction Company, and Professor Seitz. One son, Clarence D., died in 1887.
E. B. Seitz was educated in Kirksville, passing through the Kirks- ville Normal and receiving his diploma as a state teacher at the age of seventeen years, an age of graduation unprecedented in the Kirks- ville Normal. He was superintendent of the schools of Lancaster, Mis- souri, for four years, and then, in 1905, came to Milan, Missouri, to take charge of the schools of this city, assuming the duties of the position in August, and continuing therein without interruption until a recent date. His success was a most pleasing one to contemplate and his work was regarded with pride throughout the city. The school itself com- prises some thirteen rooms and six hundred pupils, with a ward school of four rooms and three hundred and twenty-five children. The sys- tem of training in Milan has advanced steadily in the past seven years, and keeps pace with the most progressive schools in a state that is noted for her efficient public school system. All credit is due to Professor Seitz, as the guiding hand in this worthy work, and it is a pleasing fact to record that his efforts met with the hearty support and encourage- ment of the people of the city, who seconded him most ably in all his ,works for the advancement of the standard of the schools. Professor Seitz resigned as superintendent of the Milan schools, March 15, 1913, to become a member of the Missouri Valley Construction Company, of St. Louis, Missouri.
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