USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 120
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Jonas Viles was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, May 3, 1875. The founder of the family in America was John Viles, or Viels. This ancestor was an orphan, his stock being unknown but probably English or colonial. The family first comes into notice at Waltham, Massa- chusetts, soon after 1700. John Viles, just mentioned, was a farmer, a member of the Congregational church, and as a soldier took part in the siege of Boston in 1775. The wife of this pioneer Viles was named Susanna Bemis, who was also of New England and of Puritan ancestry. Beginning with this original John Viles the ancestry down to Professor Viles runs through the following names as heads of generations-John Viles, Jonas Viles, Jonas Viles, Jonas Viles, Charles Lowell Viles and Prof. Jonas Viles. All these earlier forefathers were farmers on the old homestead in Massachusetts, all were Congregationalists and several of them deacons in the church, and some of them held the minor town offices.
Charles Lowell Viles, the father, was born in Waltham, Massachu- settes, May 21, 1847, was educated in the local high school, followed the occupation of farmer, belonged to the Congregational church and in politics was a Republican. He married Ahnyra Hubbard, who was born in Berwick, Maine, in 1841, a daughter of Moses Hubbard, whose wife was a Hayes. The Hubbard family was founded by Philip Hubart, as the name was then spelled, who came from the Isle of Jersey about 1680.
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Professor Jonas Viles was educated in the high school at Waltham, Massachusetts, and received all the liberal advantages which the repre- sentatives of the best New England families are properly supposed to enjoy as a matter of course. He entered Harvard University and was graduated A. B. and A. M. in 1896, and then won his Ph.D. from Har- vard in 1901. He has served as instructor, assistant professor and pro- fessor of American history at the University of Missouri from 1902 to 1913.
Professor Viles has membership in the American Historical Asso- ciation, and is a member of the Archives Commission of that association ; in the Mississippi Valley Historical Society, and is first vice-president of the State Historical Society of Missouri. He is secretary-treasurer of the Missouri Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa. In politics his course on the whole has been with the Republican party, but with strong lean- ings towards Progressiveism. His church is the Episcopal.
Professor Viles, at Providence, Rhode Island, on June 10, 1903, mar- ried Ruth Bennett Hayes, a daughter of Dr. Charles and Abby Maria (Bennett) Hayes. Her father served as surgeon in the United States Army during the Civil war. Mrs. Viles was educated in the Providence schools, and spent one year in Brown University. The children of the marriage are named as follows: Jonas, born at Columbia, October 15, 1904; Charles Lowell, horn at Columbia, August 8, 1906; Philip Hub- bard, born at Waltham, Massachusetts, May 20, 1910; and Peter Hayes, born at Columbia, January 28, 1912.
SAMUEL L. TUCKER. In any community, the men who win the greatest respect from their fellow citizens are those who have achieved success from small beginnings, by virtue of their determination, con- tinued effort and rigid commercial honesty. Such a man is Samuel L. Tucker, the leading merchant of Whiteside, Missouri. Not only is he held in good repute as a business man throughout his community, but his soft voice and pleasant manner have inspired in his fellow townsmen a genuine affection for him that will cause him to be remembered even should the monument of success which he has reared for himself be forgotten.
Three generations of the Tucker family have resided in Northeastern Missouri. The father of the first generation, Lemuel Tucker, was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, in the year 1815, but left there in 1838, to make his home in Missouri. Here he became one of the leading citizens of Lincoln county, working untiringly for the establishment of a peace- able and prosperous community. Gifted as few men are with the power of expressing his thoughts effectively in words, he used that power to promote the interests of his fellow citizens, and as an active Democrat, was one of the men who took the initiative in matters affecting his locality. The confidence his contemporaries had in him is shown by the fact that although he never sought office, he served for some years under protest, as justice of the peace, in which capacity his sagacious advice and counsel did much to insure the reign of law and order in Lincoln county. His worthy helpmate, who was a Miss Hopkins, of Kentucky, assisted in his career until she died, having been the mother of seven children. Her husband survived her by a number of years dying in 1904. Their children were as follows: James M., of Troy. Missouri; Scott, of Oklahoma ; Zachary T., a farmer of Lincoln county, and Lemuel, Albert, Marvin and Henry Clay, who all lived and reared their families in the vicinity of Whiteside.
Henry Clay Tucker, the father of Samuel L., was born in 1843. one- half mile south of Whiteside, on the old Tucker farm, where he lived until
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his death on January 13, 1912. By occupation he was a farmer, and although, since he was one of a large family of children, his education was necessarily limited, he possessed an active and inquiring mind, so that he was never at a loss for information concerning the events and inci- dents of his time, and was regarded in his community as possessing a keen intelligence. He was a man of sound principles and upright moral- ity, even in politics, where many men, otherwise honest, see fit to adopt different standards from those which they use in business, and in private life. For many years Mr. Tucker paid allegiance to the Democratic party, but his convictions caused him to pledge his faith to the Prohibi- tionists before he died. He was an earnest worker in the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
He married Miss Sarah Long, whose father was William Long, who died in 1848, shortly after his daughter Sarah's birth, and his widow, who married David Liles, died near Whiteside in 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clay Tucker were the happy parents of five children: the late Rev. William S., who was educated at William Jewell College, was mar- ried to Miss Maggie Bibb, and died at Bowling Green in 1894, having devoted his life to the ministry of the Baptist church; Addie, now Mrs. E. M. Ogden, of Hannibal, Missouri; Owen W., who died in Stockton, California, in 1889, without having married; Samuel L., the subject of this sketch; and Henry C., who was married to Miss Ida Gibson, and now resides on his farm near Whiteside. Mrs. Tucker is still living.
Samuel L. Tucker was born September 23, 1871, on the old farm. Like his brothers and sisters, he was provided with a good education, graduating from Missouri Valley College, at Marshall, Missouri, when he was twenty-two years of age. For six years, he taught country school in Lincoln and Pike Counties, and during that time he managed to save four hundred dollars out of his meagre salary. That four hundred dollars formed the nucleus of the prosperous business which is his today, for he used it to open up a small store in Whiteside. Since the starting of that first enterprise, he has always kept step with the progress of the community, so as conditions have changed, he has found it necessary to enlarge his sphere of activity. He built a new business house some years ago, which now houses a stock valued at ten thousand dollars. Later, he established a hardware shop in partnership with Louis Downing, the village postmaster. He has also built a fine residence for himself and his family.
Step by step, he has advanced to the position of one of the foremost men of the locality. Not only is he notable financially (for besides the interests mentioned above, he is a stockholder in the Farmer's Bank, of Eolia, an auditor of that institution, and is financially interested in the Mid-Continent Life Insurance Company, but he is also a conscientious, public-spirited citizen, and an ardent Democrat, who never forgets his duty as a voter. He does his part in the spiritual and social life of his community, being a deacon in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and a master Mason of Silex Lodge. He also is a member of the order of Modern Woodmen.
On December 27, 1897, when Mr. Tucker was still the obscure school- teacher, Miss Ida Belle Holcombrink gave him her hand in marriage. Mrs. Tucker was a daughter of Benjamin F. Holcombrink, who was born near Whiteside, of German extraction. Mrs. Tucker's mother was Nannie Magruder. Mr. and Mrs. Holcombrink had only two children, Ida Belle, and another daughter, who is the wife of P. H. Bougadine, of St. Louis, Missouri. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Tucker has been blessed with two children, Nita and Roland.
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MRS. LUELLA WILCOX ST. CLAIR-MOSS was born in Virden, Macoupin . county, Illinois, June 25, 1865. Her father, Seymour Borden Wilcox, came of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his forbears settling in the state of New York and later migrating to the then new state of Illinois. Her mother, Julia MeLinn, was of pure Scotch descent, the family first coming from Scotland to Virginia, and later following the tide of cmigration west- ward, locating in Indiana.
Seymour Borden Wilcox was one of the strong, pioneer settlers of the Middle West helping to develop the business and educational begin- nings of the county and town in which he had located. Mr. Wilcox was a man of strong mental and moral qualities. He served Macoupin county as sheriff and tax collector, taking office at a time of great political strife following malfeasance in office of both the sheriff and treasurer. His election was irrespective of party lines, being for that time (1872) a most unusual occurrence. He was also a hero in two cholera epidemics in Central Illinois, nursing the sick and helping to bury the dead when panic had seized many of the bravest citizens. Mr. Wilcox also served several terms as president of the board of education in his home town of Virden, Illinois, rendering valuable service in the development of the schools of that place.
Luella H. Wilcox was educated in the Virden public school and high school, graduating in 1883 with the first honors of her class. In 1885 she was graduated from Hamilton College, Lexington, Kentucky, again with the first honors of the class. The following year she spent in fur- ther study in Lexington, Kentucky, and was managing editor of a monthly college magazine. In September, 1886, she was united in mar- riage with Prof. F. P. St. Clair of Lexington, Kentucky, and resided with her husband in that city for one year, where Professor St. Clair was engaged in teaching. On account of ill-health, Professor St. Clair resigned from his teaching engagement and in December, 1888, removed with his wife and infant daughter to the state of Colorado. Here they remained for five years, Mrs. St. Clair teaching in the schools of Mont- rose, Colorado, for three years.
In the spring of 1893 Professor and Mrs. St. Clair came to Columbia, Missouri, where the former had been elected president of Christian Col- lege, the first college for women chartered by the state legislature. Pro- fessor St. Clair died in November, six months after taking office. Mrs. St. Clair was unanimously elected to succeed her husband, being the first woman head of Christian College, then in its forty-second year. In March, 1897, following a serious illness, Mrs. St. Clair resigned from the presidency of Christian College and spent the next two years in Euro- pean travel, and in study in Chicago, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the University of Missouri.
In June, 1899, Mrs. St. Clair returned to Christian College and entered into a co-principalship, one of the chief ends of this association being the carrying into effect of some large building plans. This having been accomplished in June, 1903, Mrs. St. Clair obtained leave of absence to go to Lexington, Kentucky, and take charge of Hamilton College, which was at that time at a crisis in its history. She remained at the head of this institution for six years, resigning from the presidency in 1909, to return to Christian College at Columbia, Missouri, to resume her former office of president.
On November 22, 1911, Mrs. St. Clair was married to Dr. Woodson Moss of Columbia, Missouri, professor of medicine in the medical school. University of Missouri, and university physician. Marriage did not change the plans of the subject of this sketch, but as President St. Clair- Moss she is keeping faithi with the trustees to work out certain large
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plans for Christian College, and is "president for life, or during ability to serve" the best interests of the college.
Mrs. St. Clair-Moss is in religious faith a member of the Christian (Disciples) church ; has been identified for twenty years with the Chris- tian Woman's Board of Missions, being a member of the Kentucky state board of this organization while a resident of that state. She has also given service in the Y. W. C. A., being state chairman for Kentucky, 1906-'09. She was a trustee of the Christian Orphan school (Midway, Kentucky), 1906-'09. Other organizations with which she has been identified are as follows: Director Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs, 1899-1902; president School Improvement League, Fayette county (Kentucky), 1907-'09; member American Lyceum National Club (New York) ; member Tuesday Club (Columbia) ; member Fortnightly Club (Columbia) ; chairman legislative committee Woman's Civic League (Columbia) ; vice-president Columbia Equal Suffrage Association.
I. B. DODSON, county treasurer of Sullivan county, Missouri, is now rounding out the fourth year of his term of office, he having been elected in the fall of 1908, and having assumed the duties of the office on April 1, 1909.
Mr. Dodson is a native of Unionville, Putnam county, Missouri, and a son of Francis M. and Eliza J. (Williams) Dodson. The Dodson family was established in this country in early colonial days, the date of their settlement here being in 1655. They were represented in the Revolutionary war and helped to gain independence for the states. Francis M. Dodson, Mr. Dodson's father, was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, son of John Dodson, also a Kentuckian; and Frank Williams, Mr. Dodson's maternal grandfather, was a Kentuckian, too, who was among the early settlers of Monroe county, Missouri, where his daughter, Eliza J., was born. Francis M. Dodson has been a farmer all his life, and is now a resident if Kirksville. His wife died at the age of fifty-six years. In their family were nine children, five sons and four daughters. Three of this number have been successful teachers and two of the sons have won success as physicians, both being graduates of Dr. Still Med- ical College. Dr. John Dodson is engaged in the practice of his pro- fession at St. Louis, and Dr. J. P. Dodson at Maysville. During the Civil war Francis M. Dodson served for a time as a member of the Missouri Home Guard. Politically, he has always given support to the Republican party.
On his father's farm, I. B. Dodson passed his boyhood days, attending public school and doing his share of the farmn work. Here he developed a fine physique. On leaving the farm, he turned his attention to saw- milling, and for nine years was engaged in this business. Afterward, with his brothers, he came interested in the Milan Flour Mills. He served two years as mayor of Milan, and for four years he was captain of the Fourth Regiment, National Home Guards.
Mr. Dodson was married in 1896, and he and his wife are the parents of three children, Georgia, Dorothy and Helen. Mrs. Dodson, formerly Miss Pet Shaw, is a daughter of Benjamin Shaw, a prominent farmer of Putnam county, Missouri.
Personally, Mr. Dodson is a man about six feet in height, has a mili- tary appearance, and is frank and genial in his manner. He has always had reputation for being an industrious, honorable, upright man, and he believes in giving every one a square deal. He has membership in both the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
JUDGE STERLING P. SPALDING. As a member of one of the oldest and most honored families in Ralls county, Sterling Price Spalding has
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throughout his career upheld the reputation of the family for upright conduct and stability of character. He has not only been a successful business man, but he has rendered valuable service to the public in his position as county judge.
Judge Spalding is the son of the venerable and well-known pioneer of Ralls county, Robert M. Spalding, and he was born on a hill-top over- looking Spalding Springs on the 1st of January, 1862. He began his education in the schools of the country district wherein he lived, later attending the Normal School at Kirksville. When he had completed his education and reached maturity, he settled down on the old farm to devote himself to the care and management of the large domain that his father had gathered up, and he has continued in this work throughout his life. The old farm which he operates will soon be locally at least, famous as the home of " Uncle Bob" Spalding. Here he has built up a fine stock industry, and as a feeder of cattle and breeder of horses he has become well known in this section.
The competent manner in which he conducted his own affairs and the systematie way in which the large farm was managed, led his friends and acquaintances to propose his name as a member of the county board. He was elected county judge for the eastern district in 1900, as the successor of Judge Holloway, serving with Judges Priest and Colvert. This court made the first levy for paying off the principal and interest of the bonded debt that had been incurred in aid of the Short Line Rail- road, and it also inaugurated the plan to build bridges by direct taxation instead of raising one-half of the money required for the erection of a bridge in the community which would be directly benefitted by the structure. Both of these enterprises were of no small benefit to the community as a whole.
Judge Spalding has always been a Democrat from the first vote he cast, and has been an active worker for his party, being a represenative from his county in the convention in 1904 and 1908, and worked hard for ex-Governor Folk in the former convention. He is one of the men who originally advocated the candidacy of the Hon. Champ Clark for the presidency, and he has been a member of the conventions that named him for representative to congress from the Ninth district.
Outside of his agricultural and political interests, the judge has numerous others. He is a director of the Ralls County Fair Association and gives considerable time to the practical management of this enter- prise. He is also a director of the Ralls County Bank at New London. Always an enthusiastic fisherman, he is president of the Ohaha Fishing Club, an organization which uses the beautiful old Indian name for the river which the concrete-minded American has designated the Salt river.
On the 23rd of February, 1888, Judge Spalding married Miss Lulu Whaley, a daughter of William and Willi Ann Whaley, of Marion county. Her mother was Miss Nichols before her marriage and she is one of five children-Frank E., Mrs. Spalding, Allen, Charles W. and William H. The Judge and Mrs. Spalding are the parents of two children. James Aaron and Mary Nell. He is a member of the Masonic order, being a Royal Arch Mason. and he is also a member of the Hannibal Lodge of Elks.
JAMESON F. HAWKINS. On the 21st of July, 1885, was summoned to the life eternal the soul of a man whose sterling integrity and most exemplary Christian character have left an indelible impress upon the hearts of his fellow men. At the time when he was called from the scene of his mortal endeavors he was in his sixty-sixth year, and it may be said concerning him that "his strength was as the number of his
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days." The prestige which he gained as a fair and honorable man was the result of his own well directed endeavors and his success in life was on a parity with his ability and well applied energy. Jameson Fielding Hawkins was a man of tremendous influence in Hannibal during his lifetime and there his business interests were of an extensive and varied nature.
In Georgetown, Kentucky, February 11, 1819, occurred the birth of Jameson Fielding Hawkins, who was a son of Elijah and Sophia (Bradford) Hawkins, both of whom were Kentuckians by birth. James F., of this review, was named after the old Jameson family, of Scotch ancestry. He was reared to maturity in Georgetown, Kentucky, and there was afforded such advantages as were offered in the schools of the locality and period. In 1839, at the age of twenty years, he accom- panied his parents to Missouri, settling in Hannibal, where the father opened up a general store. Subsequently Elijah Hawkins removed to a farm in Marion county and the young Jameson conducted the store until the former's death. Jameson F. Hawkins purchased a flouring mill and also conducted a ferry boat. This ferry was known as the "Ibex" and was owned by David Glasscock, J. F. Hawkins and J. W. Hyde. It was finally sunk. In later life he secured a farm just outside the city limits of Hannibal and this estate represented his home until death called him. He was interested in various railroad enterprises and was one of the promoters in the construction of the Missouri, Kansas & Topeka Railroad. He was very active in canvassing Pike county, Illinois, and Monroe county, Missouri, for subscriptions for the Han- nibal bridge, which was completed in 1871.
In Georgetown, Kentucky, March 28, 1841, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Hawkins to Miss Sarah Ann Smith, a native of Kentucky and a daughter of Asa Smith, whose death occurred in Hannibal, Missouri, during the Civil war. Mrs. Hawkins was a sister of Maj. John R. Smith, who fought in some of the Mexican wars and who, in 1847, brought to Hannibal a solid mahogany chair, part of the loot of the castle in the City of Mexico. Mrs. Hawkins was likewise a sister of Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, a prominent soldier and officer in the Confederate army during the War of the Rebellion; he died in Hannibal August 25, 1884. Mrs. Hawkins survived her honored husband for a number of years and passed away September 8, 1894. They were the parents of twelve children, all but one of whom are living, in 1912. The eldest son, Elijah Hawkins, served in the Confederate army as aide to Gen. G. W. Smith, author of Confederate War Papers. During the latter years of the war Elijah Hawkins served as a captain of a company under Gen- eral Price. At the close of his service to the Confederacy, Captain Haw- kins received part of his pay in silver half and quarter dollars, which he gave to his mother. In a recent examination of them by his sister a quarter and a half dollar stamped with the year 1853 were discovered. These pieces are highly valued by numismatists. She sent them with the rest of the coins to Captain Hawkins, who is now a resident of River- side, California. Thetis Clay, a daughter of J. F. Hawkins, is the widow of Hon. William H. Hatch, formerly of Hannibal, a sketch of whose career appears elsewhere in this work.
Jameson F. Hawkins was a stalwart Democrat in his political con- victions. He never aspired to public office of any description, but was a valiant worker in behalf of all matters forwarded for progress and improvement. He was a man of remarkable religious character. In 1849 he walked from Hannibal to California, but during the entire trip refused to travel on Sunday, which he regarded as the Lord's day of rest.
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R. H. MCCLANAHAN. As editor of the Green City Press, one of the leading papers of the county, Robert H. McClanahan fills no small place in the public mind and eye. He is prominent, not alone in news- paper cireles, but among the business men and politicians of note all through Northeast Missouri, and especially is he well known in the ranks of the Democratic party, whose stanch adherent he has long been. His father before him, though not himself a native of the state, filled a prominent place in the public and official life of Sullivan county for many years, and the name McClanahan has long been known among the worthy names of the state.
A native son of Sullivan county, born in Milan, on October 29, 1856, Robert H. McClanahan came of Virginia and Kentucky parentage. His father, Hedgman T. McClanahan, was born in Virginia on the 18th of September, 1828, and was the son of an old Virginia family, William S. McClanahan being his parent. The family is originally one of Scotch- Irish ancestry, the first American representative of the name having come from the north of Ireland in the early settlement of the United States.
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