A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 111

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912

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To the public schools of Hannibal, Missouri, Judge Eby is indebted for his preliminary educational training, which was later supplemented with a course of study in Central College, at Fayette, Missouri, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1872, duly receiving his degree of bachelor of science. For one year there- after he was engaged in teaching school in Plattsburg, Missouri, and at the expiration of that period he entered the law department of the Uni- versity of Missouri, in which he was graduated with the degree of bachelor of laws in 1874. In 1877 he initiated the active practice of his profession in Hannibal, where, during the ensuing thirty-five years, he has won and maintained a reputation for ability that has given him just pre-eminence among his fellow attorneys. In 1881 he was elected city recorder, serving in that capacity for three terms, and in 1884 he was elected city attorney, which office he likewise filled for three consecu- tive terms, later serving as such again from 1892 to 1894. In 1898 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of judge of the tenth judicial circuit, to which he was re-elected in 1904. As a jurist he early evinced the highest capacity for original investigation

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and interpretation of the law. His mind was early skilled in logical reasoning, which enabled him to solve a legal complexity as easily as a problem in Euclid. Judge Eby built up a brilliant reputation for himself on the bench but he prefers a private practice to judicial work.

In 1880 Judge Eby was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Eby, who is a daughter of Benjamin F. and Emily Eby, and who was born at Andalusia, Illinois. This union has been prolific of four children, · whose names are here entered in respective order of birth : Jeanne G., Franklin, Notley F. and Elizabeth B.

W. J. HILL. The publisher of the Hannibal Courier-Post is one of the most enterprising, hustling young men in the state and has had no inconsiderable share in the building up of Hannibal's more recent interests. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1877, and grew up among the scenes with which most farmers' sons are familiar, for his father was for some years a rural resident of the vicinity of Wapello, Iowa. Young Hill passed from the duties of his father's farm to employment in similar capacities for others in the community, this agricultural ex- perience continuing until he had reached the age of twenty-two.

In 1900, leaving the activities of the country districts, Mr. Hill went to Muscatine and entered the commercial college in that place, where he pursued the practical courses of that institution for one year's time. Then he met opportunity, brilliant and inviting, and the entire current of his life was changed.

The opening-one so flattering to a young man having no previous experience of the sort-was that of private secretary to the chairman of the Republican state central committee, and the experience of filling it was full of activity, interest and development for W. J. Hill.

After two years of the experience above referred to, Mr. Hill em- barked upon his life career-that of newspaper work. For a period of two years he acted as a reporter for the Muscatine Journal. At the end of that time he engaged in the type-writer business for a few months, after which he again accepted a position with the Muscatine Journal. This time he engaged as advertising manager and was soon promoted to the position of manager of the entire business of the Journal. This paper is a member of the Lee Newspaper Syndicate and Mr. Hill as its manager went into partnership with A. W. Lee, the founder of that body.

In 1907 Mr. Hill became the publisher of the Hannibal Courier-Post and took active charge at once as publisher and joint owner of the paper. Since he took charge of the paper its prosperity has increased in an almost astonishing degree. The annual income accruing to its owners has doubled twice-now being four hundred per cent of the figure representing in 1907; its circulation-an even more important consideration-had also increased to fourfold extent.

The Hannibal Courier-Post is the only Republican daily in the first congressional district and is the largest sheet of its policy north of the Missouri river in Missouri. Its offices provide employment for thirty people and its interests occupy three men on the road.

The other members of the company owning the Hannibal Courier- Post are Mr. E. P. Adler, publisher of the Davenport Times and presi- dent of the Lee Newspaper Syndicate, and Mr. James F. Powell, pub- lisher of the Courier at Ottumwa, Iowa. At one time the owners of the paper included the famous humorist, Samuel Clemens, known to the world as Mark Twain. After his death the movement to build a me- morial to that gifted writer, whose pen brought cheer to the readers of two continents, was headed by Mr. Hill.

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The same vigor and vim that made successful that project has char- acterized every other with which this up-to-date young man has had to do. Citizens of Hannibal and the other parts of the state have not ceased to wonder at his achievement in establishing a Republican paper in a community of "natural-born Democrats of the typical Mis- souri breed." That he has done it, completely and effectively, they clearly see; but how he has done it, they have been heard to remark, is a question as hard to answer as the time-honored one regarding Ann.

With all his aggressive determination, he has made a fine coterie of friends, who appreciate his contagious enthusiasm and his purposive vitality, and who commend his earnest and successful efforts to aid in the development of Hannibal. As such endeavors are not necessarily confined to graybeards, the work of this young man is indeed worthy to stand beside that of many of his elders among the citizens of this place.

WILLIAM P. HARRISON. "A truly great life," says Webster, "when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while and then expiring, giving place to returning dark- ness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the mass of human mind, so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit." Judge William P. Harrison's was a noble character-one that inspired his fellow men to their best efforts. His highest ambition was to serve his city and state and partriotism and nobility of purpose characterized his every act. He was summoned to eternal rest in July, 1894.

A native of the Old Dominion commonwealth, William P. Harrison was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, June 30, 1818. As a lad, in com- pany with a boyhood friend, Walker Williams, he went from his native place to Clarksville, Tennessee, whence he later came to Missouri, set- tling first in St. Louis, where he secured a position as bookkeeper with the firm of D. A. Janney & Company. In 1845 he came to Hannibal, where his brother, Samuel, had opened a general store, which he helped to run. Samuel Harrison served as mayor of Hannibal in the early days and subsequently William P. likewise filled that office with the ut- most efficiency. He began to read law shortly after his advent in this city and was engaged in legal practice, with marked success, until the death of his first wife, in 1851. At that time he had six small chil- dren, four daughters and two sons. Four of his wife's sisters came to the rescue and took one each of the daughters and reared them.

In the Pierce administration Judge Harrison was made register of the land office, with headquarters at Palmyra, the county seat of Marion county. While in Palmyra he was married a second time and two years later he resigned his position in the land office and returned to Hanni- bal, where he again took up the practice of law. In 1864 he was elected to the state senate and during the war he served as provost marshal for Northeastern Missouri. He was always an ardent sympathizer with the Union cause although his two sons both served as Confederate sol- diers. In the year 1868 he was appointed judge of the sixteenth judi- cial circuit of Missouri and he served as such with tremendous success until 1872, when he resigned on account of disturbed political condi- tions. He was once candidate for congress but was defeated in his run for that office by Colonel Hatch. While not filling some public office, Judge Harrison engaged in a private law practice in Hannibal, where he controlled a large and lucrative clientage. During the latter years

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of his life he was associated in practice with George Mahan. His demise occurred in Hannibal, where his widow still resides.

Judge Harrison was twice married. In 1838 was celebrated his mar- riage to Miss Margaret Morton, a daughter of George Morton, who was a pioneer contractor and builder in St. Louis. Mrs. Harrison passed to the life eternal in 1851 and was survived by six children. The four daughters were raised by Mrs. Harrison's four sisters and the sons were reared in Hannibal by their father. Samuel, the second son, is men- tioned in a separate sketch, which follows this one. George Morton, the older son was a prominent lawyer in Hannibal during his life time and he died in 1906, aged sixty-five years. He was a Confederate sol- dier during the Civil war and served in a Missouri Battery. For his second wife Judge Harrison chose Miss Nannie Bullock, a native of Ken- tucky. At the time of her marriage Miss Bullock was visiting friends and relatives in Ralls county, where Judge Harrison met her. There were ten children born to this union, five living. Mrs. Harrison sur- vives her honored husband and maintains her home in the old family residence on Harrison avenue, in the northwest section of the city. This beautiful home is situated in the midst of spacious grounds and is one of the few remaining of the noted old ante-bellum hospitable residences. Mrs. Harrison is a woman of culture and refinement and she wields an extensive influence for good in Hannibal, where she is beloved by all with whom she has come in contact.

Judge Harrison lived a life of usefulness such as few men know. God-fearing, law abiding, progressive, his life was as truly that of a Christian gentleman's as any man's can well be. Unwaveringly, he did the right as he interpreted it. Possessed of an inflexible will, he was quietly persistent, always in command of his powers-never showing anger under any circumstances. His death was mourned throughout Hannibal and Marion county, where he won respect by reason of his exemplary life and public-spirited interest in all that affected the gen- eral welfare of his fellow citizens.

SAMUEL JORDAN HARRISON. Civilization will hail riches, prowess, honors, popularity, but it will bow humbly to sincerity in its fellows. The exponent of known sincerity, of singleness of honest purpose, has its exemplification in all bodies of men; he is found in every associa- tion and to him defer its highest honors. Such an exemplar, whose daily life and whose life work have been dominated as their most conspicuous characteristic by sincerity is Samuel Jordan Harrison, pres- ent incumbent of the office of city recorder of Hannibal, Missouri.

In the city of St. Louis, Missouri, July 18, 1842, occurred the birth of Samuel Jordan Harrison, who is a son of the late Judge William P. and Margaret (Morton) Harrison. As a sketch of Mr. Harrison's father precedes this one further data concerning the family history is not here deemed essential. In 1845, as a child of three years of age, Samuel Jordan Harrison accompanied his parents to Hannibal, where'he was reared to adult age and where his educational discipline consisted of such advantages as were offered in the public schools of those early days. When the cloud of Civil war darkened our national horizon, al- though his father was a strong Unionist, young Samuel enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate forces, becoming a member of a Missouri regiment. At the end of six months, in December, 1861, he was dis- charged in Springfield, Missouri, whence he went to New Orleans to get a new military outfit. He intended to return to Missouri and there re-enlist but later changed his mind and went to Richmond, Virginia, to see Jefferson Davis inaugurated as president of the Confederacy.

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While in Virginia, through the influence of his uncle, Samuel Harrison, he enlisted in the Ofey Battery, in which a number of his relatives were officers. During the spring and summer of 1862 he was in West Virginia and in 1863 he joined General Lee at Gettysburg, where his battery did much effective service in routing the Federal forces. While at Gettysburg he was wounded in his right hand. He was under the command of General Lee until the latter's surrender, when the forces were disbanded and he returned to Hannibal. April 8, 1865, at Ap- pomattox Station, in a charge made by General Sheridan's cavalry, Rob- ert Ruffner, a mess mate of Mr. Harrison's, volunteered to distribute ammunition to his comrades. He was shot before returning to his gun. The Robert Ruffner Camp of the Confederate Veterans at Hannibal was named in his honor.

Returning to Hannibal in June, 1865, after a thrilling experience as a Confederate soldier, Samuel Jordan Harrison here engaged for a short time in the mercantile business. Subsequently he turned his atten- tion to farming in Ralls county, where he resided for the ensuing eight years, at the expiration of which, after the death of his wife, he returned to Hannibal; where he began to read law in the office of his father and brother. He was admitted to the Missouri state bar in 1882 and imme- diately entered upon the active practice of his profession. In 1884 lie was elected justice of the peace of Hannibal and he was the popular and efficient incumbent of that office for the following fourteen years. Mr. Harrison was appointed superintendent of census for the first con- gressional district by President Mckinley and was chairman of the Democratic congressional committee for the first congressional district, 1896 to 1900. In 1895 he was made public administrator of Marion county by Governor Stone and in 1905 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of city recorder, an office he has fillled continuously for four terms, being incumbent of it at the present time, in 1912. In his political convictions he is aligned as a stalwart sup- porter of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor. He takes an active interest in politics and has been a delegate to many important conventions. He was one of the organizers of the Robert Ruffner Camp, Confederate Veterans, and has been its commander for the past twenty-five years. He formerly belonged to the Hickman Hunting and Fishing Club, which for years held large annual banquets in Hannibal.

Mr. Harrison has been married three times. His first union was to Miss Alice McPike, a daughter of Capt. Abe McPike, of Ralls county, the ceremony having been performed in 1868. She died in 1870 and sub- sequently he married Alice Crowe, of Ralls county; she died in 1874, just two years after her marriage. For his third wife Mr. Harrison married Miss Mary Elligood Buchanan, a distant relative of President Buchanan. Four children have been born to the last union, as follows: Walker Williams, named in honor of one of Mr. Harrison's comrades while in the Civil war. Walker Williams was a son of Walker Williams, a friend of Judge William P. Harrison and the lad who accompanied him on his trip from Virginia to Clarksville, Tennessee, as noted in the preceding sketch. Walker Williams, Jr., served in the same Virginia battery as did Samuel Harrison and these two young soldiers became as fast friends as their respective fathers had been in former years. After the war Williams and Harrison both left Richmond, Virginia, for the west, the former stopping at Cincinnati and the latter returning to Hannibal. The two men did not meet again for twenty years, when they came together on a hunting trip. Shortly after the conclusion of that trip Walker Williams suddenly dropped dead at his home at

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Clarksville, Tennessee. Mary Elligood is the second child in the Harri- son family and Samuel J. is the youngest living child. One daughter died at the age of four years.

FREDERICK W. NEEPER, of Hannibal, whose name occupies a con- spicuous place on the roll of Missouri's eminent lawyers, during some twenty years' connection with the bar of the state, has won and main- tained a reputation for ability that has given him just pre-eminence among his professional brethren. In the law, as in every other walk of life, success is largely the outcome of resolute purpose and unfaltering industry-qualities which are possessed in a large degree by Mr. Neeper.

At Mogadore, Summit county, Ohio, December 28, 1863, occurred the birth of Frederick Wilson Neeper. He is a son of the late Dr. Samuel Neeper, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Dr. Neeper was reared in the old Keystone State of the Union, where he was grad- uated in the Western Reserve Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1856. For ten years after graduation he was engaged in the active prac- tice of his profession in Summit county, Ohio, and thence he removed to Missouri, locating on a farm in Clark county in the year 1866. He was greatly interested in agricultural operations but when it became known that he was a physician and surgeon of unusual skill the demands on his time in that connection became so urgent that he was obliged to abandon farming and again devote his attention to the practice of medicine. In 1877 he located in Kahoka, the county seat of Clark county, and there maintained his home until his demise, in 1890. He was a gallant soldier in the War of the Rebellion, having been captain of Company G, Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He saw active service in a number of important campaigns and was seriously wounded at Missionary Ridge. His injuries forced him to retire from the army and, sad to relate, he never fully recovered his health. He retained a deep and abiding interest in his old comrades in arms and signified the same by membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was chief surgeon for the state of Missouri for a number of years. He was prominent in Masonic circles and an influential advocate of Repub- lican principles, although he was not a politician. He married Mary Ann Russell, in 1853, and they became the parents of seven children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated: Dr. Harry R. is a dentist in Hannibal; Josephine is unmarried and resides in Kahoka; Frederick W. is the immediate subject of this review; Leti- tia I. lives in Kahoka; Edward Rogers is an oculist in Colorado Springs, Colorado; James Lincoln was a theatrical man prior to his demise, in 1898, in Kahoka; and Hubert T. is a prominent dentist in Bombay, India, where his practice is among British officials and high-class natives. Mrs. Neeper, mother of the above children, was summoned to the life eternal in 1874.

In 1866 Frederick W. Neeper, then a child of but three years of age, accompanied his parents to Clark county, Missouri, where he grew to manhood and where he was educated. He pursued his legal studies in the law office of W. L. Berkheimer in Kahoka, Missouri, and was admitted to the bar of Clark county in 1892. In the following year he came to Hannibal, where he has since resided and where he has served with the utmost efficiency as city attorney for two terms. He controls a large legal practice, most of his attention being given to civil and commercial law, and he tries cases in all the state and federal courts. He devotes considerable attention to study along legal lines and as a conscientious and skilled attorney he controls a large and lucrative law clientage. He has done much to advance the commercial

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interests of Hannibal and for the past eight years has been referee in bankruptcy, his operations as such extending over fifteen counties in Northeastern Missouri.

In the year 1903 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Neeper to Miss Leigh Allison, a daughter of Robert B. Allison, of Hastings, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Neeper have one daughter, Lucy Munger, whose birth occurred in 1907.

Mr. Neeper is a member of the time-honored Masonic order and is secretary and treasurer of the Hannibal Country Club. He is likewise affiliated with the Labinnah Club. He is a Republican in politics, warmly advocating the party principles, although he is not an active politician. He has devoted himself assiduously to his profession and has only accepted such public offices as have been thrust upon him. He is a devout communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church and is a generous contributor to all charitable matters. As a man he is thor- oughly conscientious, of undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner, and has a host of friends and few, if any, enemies.

PROF. F. L. KELLY. The standard among educators all over the country is rapidly advancing, and modern methods of instruction are constantly replacing the old- cut-and-dried system used since the days of the "three R's." Hannibal, Missouri, is not behind her sister cities in this line, being well represented by its educational institutions, prom- inent among which may be mentioned the Hannibal Commercial College. This institution, now nearly twenty years old, is one of the reliable business schools, averaging one hundred pupils and ably fitting its stu- dents for successful careers in the world of business, and its manager, Prof. F. L. Kelly, who is also its founder, has had a wide and varied experience in his present line of educational work.

Prof. F. L. Kelly was born in 1866, in Lexington, Kentucky, and received excellent educational advantages, preparing himself fully to follow his chosen vocation. After teaching in the University of Ken- tucky for several years, in the business department, he went to Paris, Kentucky, and opened a school of his own, this being incorporated, as have been most of his institutions. Subsequently, he went to German- town, Kentucky, and later to Mount Olivet, where he remained until going to Flemingsburg, Kentucky, and there taught a business course in the high school for two years. In 1893 Mr. Kelly came to Hannibal and opened the Hannibal Commercial College, which was incorporated in 1898, under the same name, with Professor Kelly as general man- ager, a position he has continued to hold to the present time. Its size has been doubled since then, the average class being about one hundred pupils, while four instructors are engaged to teach shorthand and busi- ness courses, the length of a course depending upon the ability of the pupil and the nature of the subject being taught. Himself an able edu- cator and excellent business man, Mr. Kelly is able to impart to his pupils the knowledge with which to gain a full measure of success. and the graduates of the Hannibal Commercial College are in demand by the big business firms of this part of the state.

Professor Kelly was married in Hannibal to Miss Bertha Bassen. They have one child, Laura May.

BEN. F. PAGE. In the appointment on May 22, 1909, of Ben. F. Page to the postoffice of Harris, the best possible choice of local citizen- ship was made for this place in the official affairs in Sullivan county. Mr. Page has spent nearly all his life in this county, is thoroughly known to the local citizenship, and is a man of integrity and business

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ability, in whose hands the affairs of the local postoffice are well placed. The Harris postoffice is of the fourth class and there are four rural routes radiating from this center. Harris is a town of 420 population by the last census and is one of the best rural business centers in the state.

Ben. F. Page was born July 25, 1875, on a farm in Cass county at the village of Archie, a son of P. L. and Anna (Sweezy) Page. The mother is now deceased, and the father is a farmer living at Bronson, Kansas. The founder of the Page family in Missouri was the grand- father of H. K. Page, who was one of the first settlers of Cass county.

Ben. F. Page was reared on the farm where he was born, and while developing his muscles and learning the principles of hard work, was also taught the value of honesty and integrity in every relation. He received his early education in the local public schools, and by study . at home, and subsequently by a course in a business college. On De- cember 18, 1904, he married Miss Sudie A. Niccum, a daughter of Francis and Julia (Micheal) Niccum, pioneer settlers of Mercer county. Mrs. Page is a native of Mercer county, where she was reared and edu- cated. They are the parents of one child, Ipha Bennadette, born March 4, 1912.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 111

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 912

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912