USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 108
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James Gray Adams was educated in the country schools and he, too, enlisted in the Confederate army in the beginning of the war, when he was yet under twenty years of age. He was with Colonel Porter's
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command and took part in the Kirksville raid. He left the service when his enlistment period had expired and went to Kentucky, where he pursued civil life for two years while the remainder of the contest at arms was being fought out. When peace was established Mr. Adams returned to Monroe county, Missouri, and there engaged in farming, a vocation in which he had been reared and which he followed success- fully near Holliday and Paris until he retired from active farm life and settled in Holliday. He first identified himself with that community in 1878 and there gathered together a farm of 340 acres, upon which he became a mule feeder and raiser, as well as a breeder of Shorthorn cattle. He arose from the humble position of a tenant, which he oecu- pied during the first four years of his married life, to one of financial independence, and is known to be one of the well-to-do men of the district today. He left the farm in 1908 and came to make his home in Holli- day, where he is living at the present time.
Mr. Adams has participated actively in the politics of Monroe county in the past score of years. He was elected by the Democrats in 1896 to the office of district judge of the second district, and two years later 'succeeded himself on the county bench. He was then elected presiding judge of the county court, in 1902, succeeding Judge Wooden to that office. He succeeded Judge Field as district judge and served his first term with Judges Dooley and Wooden, and his second term with Judges Wooden and Allen. As presiding judge he served with Judge McGee, Judge Clapper and Judge Umstead, and during all of his service, bridge work and road improvement constituted the chief features of his long participation in public affairs.
On February 8, 1866, Judge Adams married Miss Mildred Roney, daughter of Ellis Roney and the representative of a well known Ken- tucky family. She came to Missouri in about 1864. Mrs. Adams was one of the eight children of her parents, the others being: John; Joshua ; James; Elizabeth, who married Fielden Murphy; Matilda, who became the wife of Alexander Infield; Mary, who married Walter Roney, and Emma, who died unmarried at the age of eighteen years. The children of Judge and Mrs. Adams are as follows: Mollie, born November 11, 1866, now the wife of William F. Woods, of Monroe county; she had children as follows: Nellie Gray, the eldest, who died in 1907; Anna Lee; Mildred; Elmer, who died in 1898; Iona, and Paul Adams. Tomie Ellen, born June 12, 1868, married Hugh W. Ford and died in June, 1905, leaving five children, as follows: Anna, who married Edgar G. Hinde in 1912; Charles A .; Tirey; Mildred and Hugh. Charles Will- iam, born July 8, 1872, the third and youngest child of Judge and Mrs. Adams, is married and makes his home in Denver, Colorado, where he is engaged in the hotel business.
Judge and Mrs. Adams are members of the Christian church and have reared the members of their household in that faith.
JOHN J. BOWLES. The thriving and attractive city of Hannibal, Marion county, has its full contingent of enterprising, substantial and reliable business men in different fields of activity, and of the number Mr. Bowles is a representative exponent of the clothing trade. He has a large and finely equipped establishment and his comprehensive stock offers at all times a wide range for selection from the best in the line of sartorial productions, men's furnishings, etc. He is a native son of Hannibal and a member of one of the well known and highly honored families of this city, with whose civic and business history the name has been identified for more than half a century. He is an alert and pro- gressive business man, firmly placed in popular confidence and esteem, and as a citizen his liberality and public spirit are beyond cavil.
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John J. Bowles was born in Hannibal on the 23d of May, 1865, and is a son of John Bowles and Margaret (Carbers) Bowles, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky and the latter of New Jersey, their marriage having been solemnized at Hannibal, where they passed the residue of their lives. The father came to this city when a young man, was a stone mason by trade and here built up a large and pros- perous business as a contractor along this line, the while he was honored for his sterling integrity of character as well as for his business ability. He died in the year 1870 and his cherished and devoted wife survived him by more than a score of years, as she was summoned to the life eternal in 1892, secure in the affectionate regard of all who knew her. Of the children of this union one son and one daughter are living.
In the public schools of Hannibal, John J. Bowles gained his early educational discipline, and he remained with his widowed mother until the time of his marriage, at the age of twenty-two years. He early began to assume practical responsibilities, and he initiated his active career in the dignified position of cash boy in a local department store. Through ability and faithful service he won rapid advancement and rose to a position of distinctive responsibility and trust, the while he became well known as an excellent salesman, with a personal popularity of unqualified order.
In 1891 Mr. Bowles initiated his independent business career by en- tering into partnership with James Traynor, under the firm name of Bowles & Traynor. They engaged in the clothing and men's furnishing business and built up a large and representative trade, the partnership alliance continuing until 1902, when it was dissolved by mutual con- sent. Since that time Mr. Bowles has conducted his business in an individual way and under his own name, and his continued success gives effective voucher for the fair and honorable policies and methods em- ployed by him in according service to his large and appreciative patron- age. He owns the building in which his attractive store is located, the same being a substantial brick structure of two stories and thirty-five by one hundred and forty feet in lateral dimensions. The success of Mr. Bowles is the more gratifying to contemplate by reason of the fact that it represents the concrete results of his own ambitious and persever- ing efforts. His parents were in most modest circumstances and he has been virtually dependent upon his own resources from his boyhood days. His capitalist reinforcement when he entered business for himself was small, but his reputation constituted a valuable asset, both in his rela- tions with the wholesale houses and in his dealings with the local public. In addition to his substantial business and his store building, Mr. Bowles also owns his attractive home, in one of the best residence districts of the city, and with Mrs. Bowles as its gracious chatelaine the home is a center of generous hospitality. In politics Mr. Bowles is a staunch Democrat, but he has had no predilection for public office, as he is pri- marily and essentially a business man, but in his civic attitude he is liberal and public-spirited. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, in which they are identified with the parish of Im- maculate Conception.
In the year 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bowles to Miss Mary Traynor, who, like himself, was born and reared in Hannibal, where her father, the late James Traynor, established his home many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Bowles have no children.
PHILIP MILLER. This well known and progressive merchant has shown the distinctive initiative power and administrative ability that typify the representative American business man, and through his own
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endeavors he has gained marked precedence and large success in his chosen field of activity. He is senior member of the firm of Miller & Worley, which conducts a chain of well equipped dry-goods stores in Northeastern Missouri, and he personally has charge of the establish- ment of the firm in the city of Hannibal, the other stores of the concern being located at Montgomery City, Montgomery county, and Fulton, Callaway county. The firm has built up a business of large volume and is essentially one of the most prominent, popular and successful in this section of the state.
Mr. Miller claims the fine old Hoosier state as the place of his nativ- ity, as he was born at Madison, the judicial center of Jefferson county, Indiana on the 4th of September, 1857. He is a son of John and Eliza- beth Miller, who are now deceased. The major part of the active career of the father was devoted to cabinet making and the family name has been prominently identified with civic and industrial interests in Jef- ferson county, Indiana.
In the public schools of his native town Philip Miller gained his early educational discipline and there also he obtained his initial business experience. Endowed with ambition, self-reliance and determined pur- pose, he soon sought opportunities for advancement toward the goal of independence and business prosperity. He left his native county in 1884 and in 1894 he established his residence in Montgomery City, Mis- souri, where, with but small capital, he engaged in the dry-goods busi- ness, in which he became associated with W. W. Worley. The enterprise was originally conducted under the title of Miller & Worley, but the title was later changed to the present form, The Miller & Worley Dry Goods Company. From a modest inception the business grew to be one of substantial order, and the reputation of the concern now con- stitutes its best commercial asset, for the same betoken a scrupulous policy of fairness, effectiveness and honor in all dealings with the result that unqualified popular confidence and esteem has brought an apprecia- tive and constantly increasing patronage to the firm. Finally the firm opened also a store at Fulton, the judicial center of Callaway county, and in 1901 was established the fine store in the city of Hannibal. All of these are admirably equipped with large and well selected stocks, adequate to meeting the demands of an appreciative patronage, and the aggregate business of the firm is now one of broad scope and import- ance. Mr. Worley has charge of the store at Montgomery City ; a capable manager is employed for the one at Fulton, and from the beginning Mr. Miller has had supervision of the fine establishment at Hannibal, where he has thus maintained his home for more than a decade and where he is held in unequivocal esteem as an able and progressive business man and loyal and public-spirited citizen.
In politics, though never a seeker of the honors or emoluments of public office, Mr. Miller is a staunch adherent of the Democratic party. He is affiliated with the lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Mont- gomery City ; with the Hannibal Chapter of Royal Arch Masons; with Hannibal Commandery of Knights Templars; and with Mullah Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the city of St. Louis. He also holds membership in the Benevolent & Pro- tective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is most loyal to the state in which he has found opportunities for the achieving of marked success along normal lines of business enterprise, and he deserves much credit for the ability displayed in the improving of these opportunities. He is a member of the German Lutheran church He is unmarried.
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ALBERT R. SMITH. It has been given to Mr. Smith to attain to marked prestige and success as one of the representative members of the bar of Marion county and he is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Hannibal, the metropolis of his native county. He is a member of the well known and representative law firm of Mahan, Smith & Mahan, which controls a large and substantial business and main- tains high standing at the bar of this section of the state.
Mr. Smith was born in the city of Hannibal, on the 26th of January, 1875, and is a son of Jonathan and Emma (Smith) Smith. The mother was a daughter of General Robert F. Smith. Mrs. Smith died May 25, 1901. Jonathan Smith is still living and resides with his son, Albert R. Smith, coming to Hannibal in 1858 from Ohio, and was in the dry goods business for a number of years. Albert R. Smith is indebted to the public schools of his native city for his early educational discipline, and he prepared himself for his profession through effective study at home and also under the able preceptorship of the law firm of Harri- son & Mahan, the interested principals in which were Judge William P. Harrison and George A. Mahan. In 1897 Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar of Missouri, upon examination before the examiners appointed by the Hannibal court of common pleas, and he forthwith became asso- ciated in practice with his former preceptor, George A. Mahan, an alliance that has since been continued under most effective and pleas- ing relations. The third member of the firm of Mahan, Smith & Mahan is Dulany Mahan, a son of the senior member. Mr. Smith has proved a most able and versatile trial lawyer and well fortified counselor and has been identified with many important cases presented in the courts of this section of the state within the past decade and a half, the while he has observed the high code of professional ethics and has gained and retained the confidence and esteem of his confreres at the bar as well as of the community in general, his popularity in his native county setting at naught any specific application of the scriptural aphorisın that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Smith has made a specialty of corporation law and has gained marked prestige in this department of professional activity. In 1900 he was elected city attorney of Hannibal, as candidate on the Republican ticket, and he gave a most effective and satisfactory administration during his term of one year. He has been a zealous worker in the ranks of the Republican party and served one year as chairman of the Republican city committee of Hannibal. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and they are popular factors in the social activities of their home city
On the 24th of June, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Gusse L. Thomas, daughter of Rev. Allen C. Thomas, a represen- tative citizen of Hannibal, to which city he removed from Georgia, Mrs. Smith having been born in that empire state of the south. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one son, Albert William, who was born on the 21st of February, 1911.
HARRY K. LOGAN. Numbered among the popular and representative factors in the mercantile circles of Hannibal, the thriving metropolis of Marion county, is Mr. Logan, who is here engaged in the retail shoe business, with an establishment that is essentially modern and attrac- tive in its comprehensive stock and excellent appointments. He is alert and enterprising and his unequivocal personal popularity fully indicates that he has measured up to the demands of the metewand of public con- fidence and esteem.
Mr. Logan was born at Palmyra, the seat of Marion county, Missouri,
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and the date of his nativity was November 6, 1861. He is a son of John and Drusilla (Keller) Logan, both natives of West Virginia. The father was reared and educated in his native state and as a young man he removed from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Missouri, for the purpose of securing broader opportunities for effective business enter- prise. He settled at Palmyra, Marion county, where he engaged in the boot and shoe business, in which he there continued until 1873, when he removed to Quincy, Adams county, Illinois, where the family home was maintained until 1879. He then came to Hannibal, where he continued in the shoe business for many years and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1901. He was a man of steadfast rectitude, of much circumspection and of excellent business acumen, so that he achieved a due measure of success in connection with his long years of earnest application to business affairs. He so ordered his life as to gain and retain the unqualified esteem of his fellow men, and he was one of the honored citizens of Hannibal for many years prior to his death, his cherished and devoted wife having been summoned to life eternal in 1910 and both having been zealous members of the Methodist church. Of their children two sons and two daughters are living.
Harry K. Logan acquired his early educational discipline in the pub- lic schools of Quincy, and he was about eighteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Hannibal. Here his father with two sons, John, Jr., and H. K. Logan, established a retail shoe business, under the firm name of J. Logan & Sons. In 1903, to meet the demands placed upon this concern by the constantly expanding trade, it was found ex- pedient to incorporate the business, and its charter was granted under the title of the Logan Shoe Company. As secretary and treasurer of the company H. K. Logan gives careful attention to all depart- ments of the business, and the stock of goods carried is the largest of the kind in this part of the state, the establishment being thoroughly metropolitan in equipment, service and incidental appointments. Mr. Logan is also vice-president of the Bluff City Shoe Company, which rep- resents. another of the thriving enterprises of Hannibal. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, but he has had no desire for the honors or emolu- ments of public office. He is identified with various organizations of fraternal and social order and both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church.
In the year 1883 Mr. Logan was united in marriage to Miss Jennie L. Johnson, and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1895, being survived by two children, Henry H., who is now a resident of the city of Denver ; and Mary, who is the wife of James C. Lawrence, of Memphis, Tennessee. In 1899 Mr. Logan contracted a second marriage, by his union with Miss Mary Shepherd, daughter of John B. Shepherd, a rep- resentative citizen of Hannibal. No children have been born of this marriage.
A. W. KOHLER. Architect of his own fortune since the time he was twelve years of age, master of himself at all times, willing to match his own judgment against that of any and all others and with the ability to vindicate that judgment, A. W. Kohler, manager of the Mark Twain Hotel, at Hannibal, Missouri, is one of his city's most interesting per- sonalities, and a man who is known to hotel keepers all over the Middle West. He has been connected in various capacities with some of the largest hostelries in the country and has himself been the proprietor of a successful establishment, and the vicissitudes of Fate, which robbed him of a comfortable fortune, have failed to sour his genial nature or to make him less the courteous, hospitable host. Mr. Kohler was born in
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Goshen, Indiana, November 16, 1857, and as a lad moved with his parents to a little town near that city, where his father died when he was only twelve years of age. The father had not been possessed of much means, and the widow was left with little money with which to rear and educate her little brood. Young Kohler at once started helping in the family support, securing a position at two dollars per week, which he gave to his mother, and in the meantime took whatever opportunity offered itself to secure an education. At the age of fifteen he worked in dif- ferent capacities. His hotel experience began when he was twenty years of age, for in 1877 he secured a position as clerk in a hotel in Elkhart, Indiana. There he remained until 1880, when he went to Chicago and for some years was employed in the Auditorium, Wellington Hotel and Clifton House, and helped to open the Kaiserhof, then known as Gore's. During the greater part of this time Mr. Kohler acted in the capacity of room clerk. In 1897 Mr. Kohler and his brother, Luke J. Kohler, leased the old Windsor Hotel, at Bloomington, Illinois, which they continued to conduct with great success until 1900, when this famous and popular house was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Kohler lost a large part of his fortune. He then engaged in managing hotels at Burlington, Iowa, and St. Joseph, Missouri, until 1910, when he came to Hannibal and asso- ciated himself with other men of means, founding the Hannibal Hotel Company, of which he is secretary.
The Mark Twain Hotel was erected by a corporation of big men in Hannibal, in 1906, the majority of the stock being owned by several per- sons, although there were a number of smaller stockholders. In 1910, when the Hannibal Hotel Company took charge, a lease was signed for ten years, or until 1920, and the privilege of extension. A great deal of money has been spent in improving this house, which is now better fitted to contribute to the comfort of the traveling public than ever before, being recognized as one of the best conducted houses in the sec- tion and the biggest hotel between Quincy and St. Louis. About forty- five people are regularly employed in taking care of its guests, and every modern convenience has been installed. Much of the success of this venture must be credited to Mr. Kohler's able management. A past master of his chosen vocation, with all the details of hotel manage- ment at his finger tips, he anticipates the wishes and needs of those who stay at his house and endeavors to supply them with every con- venience. He has a wide circle of friends among his patrons as well as in and outside of business throughout Hannibal.
Mr. Kohler was married in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1899 to Miss Nellie Finnan, of Bloomington. They are members of the Catholic church. In 1879, when was organized the Hotel Men's Benefit Associ- ation, for the promotion of hotel keepers' interests, Mr. Kohler became a member of that mutual organization and has retained his membership to the present time. He belongs to the Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Royal League and the Red Men, in the last named of which he was formerly very active. A typical self-made man, taking a pardonable degree of pride in what he has accomplished, Mr. Kohler continues to strive toward still better things, and that his ambition will be satisfied is the wish and belief of a large number of his fellow townsmen who have recognized and appreciated his many admirable qualities of mind and heart.
JOSEPH P. O'HERN. To be a successful modern pharmacist is to be a man of many callings, for in this profession the members are expected to bear upon their shoulders the burdens and responsibilities of many. Not only must the druggist thoroughly understand his own profession,
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but he must be able to detect and rectify the occasional blunders of the medical fraternity, to give kindly advice to those unwilling or un- able to call in a physician, and at all times to place his establishment at the disposal of the general public. The present course of training as established by law is long and arduous ; no other line of human endeavor demands such expenditure of nervous and physical strength. Among those who have shown themselves worthy of the confidence reposed in them and able to handle cheerfully and capably the demands made upon them, is Joseph P. O'Hern, familiarly known as "Joe," of Hannibal, proprietor of a successful and steadily growing pharmacy. Mr. O'Hern was born in Hannibal, and has here spent his entire career.
John G. Hock, the maternal grandfather of Joseph P. O'Hern, was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1855, following which he spent four years in Albany, New York, and then migrated to Hanni- bal, Missouri, in the interest of a syndicate that organized the first gas plant at this place. The financial uneasiness which accompanied the Civil war, however, caused the failure of this concern, and in 1864 its resources and holdings were sold under the hammer. Shortly after the war, however, Mr. Hock re-established the company, as a member of the firm, which was composed of several of the leading citizens of Han- nibal, and put it on a firm basis. The gas industry owes its success to Mr. Hock, who died in the prime of life, in 1872, being but forty-eight years. No doubt he would have become one of the city's most prosper- ous men, as he had been remarkably successful in his real estate deals and had various other important business interests. His wife, also a native of Germany, survived him a long period, dying at the age of sixty-four years, in Hannibal.
James O'Hern, the father of Joseph P., lost his parents when he was a child, and was four years of age when brought from Ireland to the United States by his older sister, the two going to Dubuque, Iowa, to make their home with an aunt. After the close of the Civil war, Mr. O'Hern engaged in the plumbing business in Hannibal for several years, and then embarked on a venture in company with Michael Doyle, they purchasing a small mule-driven car line, of ancient and inefficient equipment. This they remodeled to some extent and conducted it thus for a number of years, but in 1892 decided to change to the electric cars. In the midst of this change, the financial panic of that year caught them, and for a time it seemed that the company must go down under the strain, but the partners gamely stood by their guns until the uneasiness had passed, and eventually installed electricity, extended the road, bettered the roadbed, put on more cars and in many ways added to the efficiency of the line and to the comfort of its passengers. In 1897 or 1898, Mr. O'Hern severed his connection with this company and engaged again in the plumbing business, which he built to large proportions, and at the time of his death, in 1907, he was considered one of his community's substantial citizens. He married Mary Hock, who still survives, and they had a family of eight children, several of whom reside in Hannibal, one of the sons being clerk of the court of common pleas in Hannibal, one in the cigar business, and several others engaged in working at trades, although none have attained the measure of success that has rewarded the efforts of "Joe."
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