A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 64

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

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HON. MAY TOMPKINS GILL. Bringing to his office a ripe and unerring judgment gained through a long experience with men and affairs, Judge May Tompkins Gill, of Perry, has become one of the eminent members of the Ralls county bench, his fitness to serve on which has been demonstrated by a distinguished service. It often occurs that the training received in a life devoted to large commercial transactions peculiarly prepares a citizen for service in positions relat- ing to matters of jurisdiction, and in Judge Gill's case there has been no exception to this rule. He was born on Lick creek, five miles south of Perry, June 20, 1865, and is a son of Hon. Thomas F. Gill, whose life work is recorded in another part of this volume.

In Judge Gill's infancy, his father moved the family to the cross- roads place known as Perry, and there the future county judge was reared, educated and received his business training. The wonderful adaptability of his father for any line of commercial activity led him to found many of the business enterprises of the new town, and his son May was installed in several of these, by times, and in this way he became an able business competitor himself before his majority was attained. The mill, the livery and the lumber yard serve to indicate the variety and the versatility of the senior man's mental operations and in these enterprises, and others, May gained a good commercial education. He subsequently settled down to trading and dealing in stock and then located himself upon the farm. He acquired by pur- chase the interests of the Gill heirs in a section of land lying against the townsite on the west and here his efforts as a feeder, grower and stock dealer have been carried on. He is widely known among the extensive stockmen and the mule buyers have learned to depend upon his ranch for valuable animals by the carload.

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In 1908 Judge Gill entered the race for county judge, as the suc- cessor of Judge Samuel J. North. He won the nomination, and was elected and has contributed much to the strength of the personnel of the county bench. His colleagues are Judges Priest and Gore, and their administration has been marked with the improvements to the highways, the building of bridges and other noteworthy accomplish- ments. His selection for a dual part in the handling of the public funds has shown wisdom among the constituents of his district.

On September 14, 1892, Judge Gill was married to Miss Lena Moss, daughter of John C. and Sarah (Richards) Moss, and sister of Mrs. J. E. Bowler of Perry, and George A. Moss. Judge and Mrs. Gill have two children: Moss and Longly Malone. The Gill residence is among the elaborate country homes of Ralls county. It was erected in 1899, commands a view of the big farm-ranch, and reflects the substantial character of its owner. Its wooded front echoes the noise of the little commercial center just beyond Lick creek and its annual output adds materially to the clearings credited to Perry as a business point. Judge Gill is one of the vice presidents of the Perry Bank. He is a member of Lick Creek blue lodge of the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the Christian church.

JOHN EDWARD BROWN, M. D. The medical practitioner of 1912 is a man widely different from the practitioner of 1812 or 1862. The science of medicine has advanced more in the last half-century than it had in all the ages up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. While it has progressed, the requirements of the physician have grown abreast, and the doctor of today approaches his work only after years of earnest effort and careful training. Dr. John Edward Brown, of Perry, a practicing physician, is one of the most representative men of his class in Northeastern Missouri, and is a native born Missourian, having been born in Audrain county in 1866, and grew up in the vicinity of the village of Farber. His father, James Robert Brown, settled in that locality upon coming from Montgomery county, this state, where he was born December 20, 1844.

John Brown, the paternal grandfather of the doctor, was born in Virginia and came from that state to Montgomery county, Missouri, during the western exodus in Taylor's administration, settling near Middletown and there passing his remaining years. He and his wife had the following children: Penelope, who married Robert Brown; Mary, who was the wife of John W. Ham; James Robert, father of the doctor; Sweetie, who died single; Jennie A., who married John T. Elzea, of Laddonia; M. R. Brown, of Farber, Missouri; Phronie A., who married Henry L. Elzea, of Ralls county; and Mollie, who mar- ried a Mr. Hamlet, and resides at Middletown, Missouri.

James R. Brown achieved his modest success as a farmer near Far- ber, Audrain county, Missouri. His education was that of the old district school. He was content to devote himself to the production of that which satisfies the appetites of men, and, after the Civil war, he indulged in no diversion calculated to set man against his brother or create discord amongst his fellows. He was a Democrat without apology and his religious faith was that of the Primitive Baptist church. For his wife James R. Brown married Sallie Tipton, a daughter of William Tipton, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, whose wife was a Miss Splond. Mrs. Brown passed away in 1872, her children being as follows: John Edward; Amanda, the wife of M. A. Sherman, of Endicott, Washing- ton ; and William T., of Rock Lake, Washington. Berilla Curry became the second wife of James R. Brown, and a son, Claude E., of Middle- town, Missouri, resulted from the second union.

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John Edward Brown was educated in the country schools and at Martinsburg, Audrain county, and began the study of medicine in 1892. Spending a year in the St. Louis Medical College, he matriculated in the Hospital Medical College of Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated there in 1895. He took a post-graduate course in the Post-Graduate school of Chicago, in 1907, and began his practice at Campsville, Illinois, going from there to Farber, Missouri, where he practiced one year, and subsequently removing to Florida. Dr. Brown remained in Florida, Missouri, from 1897 to the fall of 1911, when he established himself in Perry, and here is in the enjoyment of a large and representative practice. He is identified with the Ralls County Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, in all of which he takes an active interest.

Dr. Brown was born on November 1, 1866, and was married Febru- ary 7, 1900, to Miss Antha B. VanDeventer, daughter of John W. Van- Deventer, who was born and reared in Monroe county, Missouri, and married there Miss Mary Buchanan. The VanDeventer household comprised Hattie, who married F. A. Utterback and is deceased ; Mag- gie, at home; Essie Lee, wife of Reuben H. Scobee, a resident of Missouri ; and Mrs. Brown. The only child of Dr. and Mrs. Brown is James Randolph. They are members of the Presbyterian church, and Dr. Brown exemplifies his fraternal inclinations in the Masonic order, where he has occupied all the chairs with the exception of the master's.

MARCUS PAYNE LAFRANCE is the president of the Peoples Bank of Perry, Missouri, and one of the builders and developers of the town. His residence in the community dates from November 9, 1859, and his career of more than half a century has been full of action and sub- stantial achievement. As a mechanic of the early time he brought into existence many of the first residences, as a merchant he was identified with the early commercial life of the place, and as a banker he has been a leading factor in the development of a financial institution second to none in Ralls county. Mr. LaFrance was born in Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, March 5, 1838. He grew up at Pittston, at the mouth of the Lackawanna river, in Luzerne county. Whatever education he acquired came from the town schools, and his own lack in facing the world without ample education has ever made him a friend of liberal education and a strong supporter of the public schools.

The LaFrance family is of French origin, the American founder of it having been Pierre LaFrance, who came to the aid of the Colonies as a soldier of General LaFayette's army of Frenchmen, fought through the Revolutionary war, and after the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town, settled near Scranton, then called Slocum Hollow. He married there a Miss Fellows and subsequently moved to Wyoming, Luzerne county, where his son, Samuel, the grandfather of Marcus Payne LaFrance, was born. Samuel LaFrance also partook of his father's military tendencies, and when the second war with Great Britain was declared, in 1812, he became a drummer in a Pennsylvania regiment. His life as a civilian was devoted to farming, and he and his wife lived out their lives in the Wyoming valley. His wife was Mary J. Breese, a Connecticut lady, whose father was a man of means and the owner of a vast area of the Wyoming valley. Samuel and Mary J. LaFrance had these children: Lot, Truxton, Peter, Graham, Isaac, William, Hannah, Sallie and Polly.

William LaFrance, the father of Marcus P., was born April 10, 1810, around Wyoming, and there was nothing unusual in his educa- tion or parental training. He followed the carpenter trade throughout

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his life in Pittston, and there his death occurred in 1876. He mar- ried Nancy McLeod, daughter of John McLeod, a Scotchman, and she passed away in 1851, having been the mother of these children: Mar- cus Payne; Mary J., who became the wife of John Williams, and died at Spring City, Pennsylvania; Hannah R., who married William Pol- lock, and resides at Wyoming, Pennsylvania ; Helen, who is Mrs. Jacob Morrison of Pittston,. Pennsylvania; and John G., a locomotive engi- neer of Ithaca, New York.

Marcus Payne LaFrance developed a vigorous constitution as a boy and youth, climbing the hills about Pittston, fishing in the moun- tain streams adjacent thereto, and in handling the tools necessary to make a carpenter of himself. When he had acquired a knowledge of his trade he decided to pitch his tent somewhere in the west, and in 1857 his father took him to the station one day to bid him Godspeed upon his journey and upon his new career. The father reminded him of the presence, somewhere in Illinois, of his great-uncle, Henry Breese, and hoped he might chance to find him as he crossed that state. From Pittston to Chicago by rail was then a long journey, and on reaching the latter city Mr. LaFrance remained over night, continuing his jour- ney to St. Louis by way of Kewanee, then the terminus of the rail- road. At this point he took the stage for Toulon, and among the passengers of the old coach was his father's uncle, Henry Breese, whom he recognized by the family resemblance, and whom he found was the sheriff of the county and a resident of Kewanee. He spent a week with Mr. Breese's family and then proceeded on to Toulon, remaining in Illinois through 1858 and coming to Louisiana, Missouri, the next year.

While sojourning in Illinois, Mr. LaFrance witnessed some of the incidents of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate. At Toulon he heard the Little Giant ask his audience the question: "Who is Abe Lincoln ?" and then answering himself said : "A farmer's son, a rail-splitter, fiatboatman, grocer and barkeeper." When Mr. Lincoln spoke, he replied to this reference to himself and admitted that his father was a farmer and that he "was raised by sleight of hand with the shell on, split rails, flatboated, sold groceries and tended bar, and while he was engaged on the inside of the bar Douglas was a leading customer on the outside."

At Louisiana, Missouri, Mr. LaFrance worked at his trade until the fall of 1859 or the first of 1860. On November 9, 1859, he was induced by Robert Allison, of Pike county, to come to this locality to build a house for Thomas M. Campbell, and when this was done he took a contract to build the old Lick Creek Christian church, com- mencing that work in June, 1860. He gathered together a little force of carpenters and found contracts enough to keep them busy until business conditions were interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil war. Although of northern birth, education and training, his residence among the pro-Slavery citizenship of Missouri won Mr. LaFrance's fealty to the Confederate cause and he mounted his pony and pro- ceeded to do duty in the rebel ranks. His military career was cut short, however, by his early capture right in his home locality by the Federals, and he was taken to Hannibal and there induced to take the oath of allegiance, again becoming a loyal citizen of the civilian ranks.

In 1863, Mr. LaFrance began farming as an adjunct to his trade, but when he lost his wife, five years later, became identified with mer- cantile pursuits in Perry, then merely a cross-roads place. From 1868 to 1885 he was closely connected with the merchandise business here. The Masonic hall was directly above the frame building in which he

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did business in 1868, and that year he was initiated into the mysteries of the order. When he and his partner erected a brick business house upon the same site the lodge room was provided for and remained overhead for many years. For many terms during his more active life he was master of the lodge, and for a number of years, too, did he do service as a member of the school board of Perry, always having in mind the development of the best system of public schools possible, consistent with the instructors and means at hand. In 1885 Mr. La- France joined other men of means in the establishing of the pioneer bank of Perry, of which he was made cashier, and remained with the Perry Bank two years, in 1887 being one of the promoters of the Peo- ple's Bank of Perry. This institution gathered about it some of the leading financiers of the town and county and took early rank with the responsible financial institutions of Ralls county. In 1911 the de- mands for space in which to transact its growing business compelled the bank to erect a home of its own and January 1, 1912, it took posses- sion of its new quarters and greeted its patrons and friends in one of the handsomest and most convenient banking houses of the country towns of the state. Mr. LaFrance is the fourth president of the in- stitution, having succeded James W. Neville, the successor of S. B. Smith, who took the place of Dr. John Bledsoe, the first president of the bank. In addition Mr. LaFrance is a large property owner, has extensive farming interests, and for a number of years carried on stock raising in addition to his other complex enterprises. He has lent a helping hand toward the work of church erection in Perry and around the town. He holds membership in the Christian church, but, like all the successful men who aid the cause of education and religion, he has continued his benefactions until houses of worship for all organ- ized religious bodies have been provided.

On November 17, 1863, Mr. LaFrance was married to Miss Maggie Biggers, who died in 1868, leaving him two children: Emma J., who is the wife of W. R. Netherland, cashier of the Peoples Bank of Perry and a son of Missouri pioneers; and Sarah Helen, who married Joseph L. Clark, of Perry. On November 10, 1878, Mr. LaFrance was mar- ried to Miss Sue B. Fagan, a daughter of James and Lucy (Maddox) Fagan, the former of whom was once a well-known stock man of this locality. Four children have been born to this union: Mary Nana, wife of R. F. Turner, of Elsberry, Missouri, and William B., James M. and John F., all residents of Perry. In girlhood, "Nana" exhibited talent as a vocalist and her parents encouraged it in college at Mexico, Mis- souri and elsewhere, with the result that she is one of the leading sing- ers of Northeastern Missouri, taking prominent numbers on Chautauqua programs and at other functions requiring ability and genuine merit. James M. LaFrance is an assistant in the Peoples Bank; and John married Miss Lorene Glascock and established his home adjacent to the parental domicile.

DR. JAMES ROBERT MUDD passed over a third of a century in the practice of medicine in St. Charles, and not only gained a high place for himself in the esteem of his patients and fellow physicians, but also gained renown among the political circles of the city. He was elected mayor of St. Charles, and during his administration the water works were installed, one of the main issues in the campaign which elected him. He was also coroner of St. Charles county, and through numer- ous reelections served for twelve years. During his term as coroner the county board placed him in charge of the county asylum, an office which he held for twenty-one years consecutively. He also served on

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the city council from the third ward for twelve years. He was a. Dem- ocrat.

Dr. Mudd's first American ancestor came over from England with Lord Baltimore toward the end of the seventeenth century, and it was under the British flag in Lord Baltimore's colony, in Maryland, that his grandfather, Frank Mudd, was born. Toward the close of the eighteenth century Frank Mudd left Maryland and settled as a frontier planter in Washington county, Kentucky, near Springfield, where Thomas and Mordecai Lincoln had also located. Mordecai Lincoln married into the Mudd family, and Thomas Lincoln was married to Nancy Hanks. Frank Mudd had four children by his wife, a Miss Hager, after whose people Hagerstown was named, James H., Luke, Betsy, who became Mrs. Philip Mattingly, and later remarried, and Mildred, who married Patrick Mudd, her cousin. Mr. and Mrs. Mudd are buried in the neighborhood of Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.

James H. Mudd, the father of Dr. Mudd, was born in 1800. He was a studious boy, and was ambitious of acquiring as complete an education as was possible at the time. He even learned Greek and Latin, an unusual accomplishment for a frontier boy of that period. If he had lived in an older country he probably would have been a scholar, but as it was, his poise and cultured manner marked him out throughout his life. He taught school for a time and then became a cooper. In politics he was first a Whig, then a War Democrat, and an enemy of Secession. He loved "The Great Pacificator," Henry Clay, and took a lively interest in politics although he held no office other than that of magistrate of his precinct. His religion he inherited from his Catholic ancestry, and he passed away at Olney, Lincoln county, in 1890, where he had settled just forty years before.

Dr. James R. Mudd's mother was Eliza Janes before her marriage, a daughter of Thomas Janes, an emigrant from Virginia. She died in 1869, the mother of fifteen children, among whom were Thomas, Mildred, who died in Lincoln county, Missouri, the wife of Jeff Moran; Sarah E., the wife of Stephen Mattingly; Martha A., now living in St. Charles, the widow of William Miller; Catharine Asenath, who before her death in Springfield, Missouri, was the wife of Leopold Edelen ; Samuel, of Montgomery county, Missouri; John, of Boone county, Missouri; Patrick, of Monroe City, Missouri; Dr. James R., of St. Charles; Susan, the wife of James Elder of Montgomery City, Missouri; Lineas, who died in Montgomery City; and Sidney A., a resident of Monroe City, Missouri.

Dr. James Robert Mudd was born in Washington county, Kentucky, August 10, 1844, and received his education in the public schools of Lincoln county, Missouri, and in St. Charles College, now the military school of the city. For the first five years after he left school he taught in St. Charles county, reading medicine during his spare hours. He attended the lectures at the St. Louis Medical College, now the medical department of Washington University, St. Louis, and grad- uated in 1872. He established himself in old Boschertown, where he practiced until 1879, when he moved to St. Charles. He became the senior member of the medical profession in the city. He was a mem- ber of the local, and the state and national medical association. He was also one of the directors of the First National Bank of St. Charles, and one of the stockholders of the Union Savings Bank here.

October 10, 1875, Dr. Mudd was married in Boschertown to Miss Mary C. Boschert, a daughter of John Boschert, the founder of Bos- chertown, and a family of both French and German extraction. The children of this union are Eugene J., discount clerk at the Bank of

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Commerce, St. Louis; Dr. Leo C., a surgeon in the United States Army at Washington, D. C .; Arthur D., of St. Charles; Charles B., assist- ant cashier First National Bank of St. Charles; Francis H .; Mary ; Margaret; and Linus J.

Dr. James R. Mudd died Tuesday morning, January 14, 1913. In his death, one of the most highly esteemed citizens of St. Charles has passed away. There was no man in this city who was more highly honored than Dr. Mudd, who spent most of his life in our midst, ad- ministering to the sick and afflicted. He was a member of the church of St. Charles Borromeo, the Catholic Knights of America and the Knights of Columbus.

JAMES GOODIER STERRETT has been a prominent member of the business and political world of Perry, Missouri, for a number of years, beginning his career in the city which is now his home as a green young country boy, holding a humble clerkship in one of Perry's stores. From this beginning he has become one of the leaders in the business world, and is recognized as one of the men of influence in the community.

The birth of James Goodier Sterrett occurred on the 13th of December, 1864, near Florida, Missouri, famed as the birthplace of our illustrious and lamented humorist, "Mark Twain." The grandfather of James G. Sterrett, James Sterrett also, was the founder of the Ster- rett family in Missouri. A native of the state of Virginia, he came to Missouri in 1840, and located somewhere between Florida and Santa Fe, at the time a very thinly settled region. He was born near Staun- ton, Augusta county, Virginia, the son of David Baskin Sterrett, and one of seven brothers. The Sterrett family is of Scotch Irish stock, that old strain that formed the background of the American people at the time of the Revolution. . They sent a number of their members into the war with England, and the record which was thus set for cour- age and loyalty has ever been lived up to by their descendants. David Baskin Sterrett was the father of eight children: James, William, Samuel, David, Alexander, Baskin, Washington and Nancy, who mar- ried a Gilkerson. Alexander married a Miss Bovier and migrated to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he was killed as sheriff of the county, in 1849, leaving a family to mourn his death.

James was the seventh son and he married Evelyn Sterrett, a daughter of William Sterrett of the Pennsylvania branch of the family. His wife was born at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and her mother is believed to have been a McCune. Mrs. Sterrett died in 1839 after the birth of her fourth child, in Augusta county, Virginia. Mr. Ster- rett remained a widower until his death, which occurred in 1865, when he was seventy-two years of age. His children were William B., Samuel and George W., the fourth child dying in childhood.

George W. Sterrett, the father of James G. Sterrett, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, on the 14th of February, 1836. He grew to manhood on the farm and received his education in the country schools, his life being that of the average farmer's son. Following his father's belief that for a man born and bred on a farm there was no other means of earning a livelihood, he turned to farming, and spent his life in this industry. His death occurred in Paris, Missouri, January 2, 1911, four children surviving him. He married his wife from among the girls of the neighborhood where he grew up, her maiden name being Price, and her father, a native of Kentucky, being T. G. Price. Mrs. Sterrett died on the 15th of February, 1897, and the four chil- dren born to her and her husband were Miss Eva Sterrett, of Paris,

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Missouri; James G., of Perry, Missouri, and William S. and George, of Marseilles, Illinois.

In their relation to the county, the forefathers of James G. Sterrett were retiring and conservative people, interested in politics only as followers, never as leaders, and feeling since their ancestors had been farmers they also were destined for the same work. Young James Sterrett received as good an education as the times afforded, being particularly fortunate in having as a teacher that very able educator, Professor Strother, who was a well-known citizen of Monroe and Ralls county a quarter of a century ago. He grew up with a feeling that he was not intended for the life of a farmer, and as a youth rebelled at the idea, but it was not until he had spent several years of his young manhood upon the farm near his birthplace that he finally determined to seek his future in some other line of work.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 64

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