A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 79

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

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Hugh Jefferson Norvell, whose birth had taken place in Amherst county, Virginia, was about twenty years of age at the time when he came to Missouri. He married the daughter of his father's second wife. To the home of Hugh and Jane (Foster) Pryor Norvell, eight children were born ineluding Robert, whose brothers and sisters were as follows: Benjamin, who lives at Colorado Springs; Alice, who married Polk Raineau of Pike county and who is no longer living; R. H., who died in Lincoln county, June 13, 1911; Virginia, deceased; L. B. and J. B., deceased ; Marvie Sled, Pike county, Missouri; two children by second wife, Mary and Hugh.

Robert Norvell was the fourth child of his parents and was born in

Kimas & Grill

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Pike county, Missouri, on October 13, 1850. He came to man's estate with only such education as the district school provided, a part of his school equipment having been paid for from the proceeds of his work as a hand on farms. As his first agricultural efforts were controlled by his financial situation, he was forced to "crop" for a time. Before he was of age he came to the community which is still his home and here worked as a farm-hand until he had gathered a small amount of stock, purchased by his earnings. As time passed, his frugality and industry brought appreciable returns and in the course of time he found himself working on his own land. His herds increased, his domain extended, his responsibilities grew, his family was established, his usefulness to the community was augmented and never did he forget his obligation to his Creator. His estate includes almost a section of land at the present time and its improvements include all the conveniences and comforts that his industry and thrift and the rural situation justify. In the pro- motion of the bank of Eolia Mr. Norvell added his capital, becoming a stockholder, and is otherwise possessed of substantial interests.

Mrs. Norvell, nee Mary Ann Elizabeth Estes, was a daughter of Jacob Oglesby Estes and his wife, Diana Adams Estes, the latter being a daugh- ter of George L. Adams. The second generation of Robert Barnett Nor- vell's family consisted of two daughters, to whom their parents gave superior education. They first attended the Paynesville (Mo.) School Institute, second St. Charles College of the Methodist Episcopal church South and were later graduated from Pritchett College, at Glas- gow, Missouri. The elder daughter, Georgie, is the wife of Nicholas L. Davis, who is a farmer near the Norvell home. Mary is the wife of Rev. John A. Highes, of Rich Hill, Missouri. When a young man of nineteen years, Mr. Norvell became a member of the Methodist church South. He has brought up his family under religious influence and training and has served his congregation officially. He is also fre- quently chosen as a delegate to church conferences and to other re- ligious gatherings where his congregation is to be represented. Mr. Norvell represents a high type of agricultural citizen.

THOMAS FRANKLIN GILL. Much interest attaches to the family his- tory of Thomas Franklin Gill, whose first American born ancestor was Capt. Thomas Gill, born in about 1849. Since that time the states of Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri have been chiefly the home of the various branches of the family, and men of the name have taken worthy places in the industrial and social activities of their communi- ties. As one who has long been a leader in his immediate locality, it is peculiarly fitting that specific mention be made of the life of Mr. Gill, and that adequate detail be set forth concerning those of the name who have preceded him in the activities of life on these shores.

Since the spring of 1853 Ralls county, Missouri, has been familiar with this branch of the Gill family, for it was in that year that Thomas Franklin Gill came into this rural community from Bath county, Ken- tucky. He was born near Owensville, that county, on November 15, 1831, and his father was Samuel Chriswell Gill, a successful financier, farmer and miller of that section, who located there soon after his mar- riage. South Carolina was the birth state of Samuel C. Gill and the date of his nativity was November 22, 1783. His early life was one of labor in clearing off the canebrake with the big "nigger" hoe of that period, grubbing and cleaning and gradually bringing the forest of his native locality into subjection and eventual cultivation. Of the many things he knew, few were learned as a student, even in the pioneer cabin school of his time and place. He possessed the inquiring mind of a

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student, however, and he educated himself as the emergency seemed to require it after he reached manhood. His body was strong and vigor- ous, like his mind, and his prowess with the reaphook in the harvest field was known far and wide.

On September 25, 1807, Samuel Chriswell Gill married Sarah Malone, a daughter of Jonathan and Mary Malone, who migrated from Tennes- see into Montgomery county, Kentucky. A pony, a feather bed and eleven dollars in money constituted the worldly wealth of Samuel C. and Mary Gill when they set out on their journey toward the mountains of Kentucky, and they settled on Licking river in Bath county. There Mr. Gill discovered an opening for a grist mill and he purchased an old dam on the river, rebuilt it, and with the voluntary aid of his neighbors soon had a pair of burr stones running and making meal. A saw was later added to the plant and he worked the fine timber of that locality into lumber and sold it to the new settlers who poured into that section of the country as pioneers. Out of this little mill he laid the foundation for a fortune, and he became the foremost man in his community.

When the public lands of Indiana were thrown open to entry Samuel Gill located large quantities of the best land in Putnam, Hendrick, Boone and Montgomery counties, and subsequently selected land in Douglas county, Illinois, which lands he entered. He owned a body of five hun- dred acres adjacent to the mill, besides other lands in Kentucky, which contributed to his great wealth in later years. He was a man who pos- sessed the confidence of his fellows and they made him their justice of the peace or member of the county court, as they happened to require such servants, while he was the last sheriff of Bath county under the law making the senior justice of the peace a dual office holder as county sheriff. In 1849 he crossed the river and became a resident of Fleming county, and his son, Harrison Gill, became sheriff.

Samuel C. Gill's citizenship was ever of the first order. He was a man who made it a part of his business to help those weaker than him- self, and he led an upright and wholesome life, despising hypocrisy as only a strong man will. He made no profession of Christianity, but he passed his days with a noble wife of the Primitive Baptist faith, whose life and character were long an inspiration to him. Mrs. Gill died December 22, 1847, and on November 1, 1849, he married Elizabeth Reed, who bore him no children. In the later years of his life Mr. Gill disposed of his mill by sale, when he stipulated expressly in the deed that it should be forever known as Gill's Mill, but a recent owner, with little regard for the sacred deeds or names of the pioneers, proposed the name of "Cogswell" to the government as being better suited for the name of the postoffice than "Gill's Mill," and thus the anchor of this historic spot was loosened and a once noted place in the frontier days of Ken- tucky was lost to view.

Mr. Gill was the son of Capt. Thomas Gill, born about 1749, and a grandson of John Gill and his wife, who was a Miss Duncan in her maiden days. John Gill came to the American colonies as an Irish boy, without name or ancestral record of his own. He was picked up as an infant on the ocean shores of Ireland, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and with the gill of a fish in his mouth. Knowing nothing of his origin, the kindly peasant people who found him took him to their own homes, brought him up in their families and named him "Gill," because of the incident of the fish gill connected with the finding of the babe. This incident is believed to have taken place about the year 1718, and some fourteen years later the boy, who it seems was living with an Irish weaver, had a difference of opinion with the elder person which resulted in his leaving Erin's shores and coming as a stowaway to the New

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World. About the year 1848 he married his Scotch wife and they set- tled in the colony of New Jersey.

Among the children of John Gill and his wife were Thomas, James, George, Robert, John and William, but there seems to be no record of his descendants other than through his son Thomas. The latter entered the patriot army at the beginning of the Revolutionary war and soon won the rank of captain. After the war he married Hannah Chriswell, set- tled in South Carolina and subsequently moved to Montgomery county, Kentucky. Their children, Samuel Chriswell, John, Robert and Rebecca, were born in South Carolina, while Sallie, Betsey, Polly, James, Josiah, Nancy, William and Thomas were born in Kentucky.

The family of Samuel C. Gill and his wife numbered thirteen chil- dren and as they married and established separate homes he gave them farms of the lands he had entered in Indiana and Illinois, and all were provided for in this way save the youngest child. They settled upon the lands at once, with few exceptions, and their descendants occupy much of those various tracts today.

Thomas F. Gill, their youngest son, was an unschooled, but by nc means an uneducated man, for few men knew intuitively and by per- sonal experience the great and fundamental principles of life as he did. His career began with a deputyship under his brother, Harrison, who was sheriff of Bath county, and following this he sold goods in Fleming county. He brought a few hundred dollars with him to Missouri and invested in wild land, built him a cabin, and during the ten years he occupied that land he lived through many trying experiences which others of his family in his generation were spared through the generous provision made by their parent. Making the acquaintance of some large cattle men in Illinois and arranging with them to take such "stockers and feeders" as he could pick up in Missouri, Mr. Gill found his first opening for money making. Thus entering the stock business in a small way, he continued it with much profit and became one of the big feeders and dealers of Ralls county. He kept a freight wagon plying between Hannibal and Perry in the early days and his operations gradually took on an extent all out of proportion to his primitive beginning.

During the Civil war Mr. Gill was a member of the enrolled militia of Missouri and while he was absent on a war call his wife bravely kept up the isolated home, filled her husband's place as head man about the farm, and kept things together generally until his return. Before the close of the war he purchased the cross roads store of Mr. Ellis and in a short time became a prosperous merchant. A few years later the town of Perry was platted and he paid $200 for a corner lot in the corn field, and built a store room on the site of the Williams-Hanna store of today. Seeing the future of the new town, he bought its lots indiscriminately and soon became the leading property owner of the place. With his power over commerce and trade established, the confidence of the com- munity was his and everything seemed to conspire in his favor. To a man of his ability, money making was as easy as catching fish with a seine, and his progress toward financial independence was assured, and measured itself by leaps and bounds. He originated most of the mer- cantile enterprises of Perry, sold them out when established and thereby gave Perry a prominence and permanence it might not otherwise have gained, and by helping others into paying business ventures, kept his mind and his capital busy at the same time.

Among the enterprises with which Mr. Gill has been variously asso- ciated are hotels, dry goods establishments, grocery and drug stores ; he has sold hardware, furniture and lumber, ran mills, livery stables, wagon and blacksmith shops and opera houses. He established in 1885 the Vol. III-34

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Perry Bank and became chief stockholder and president of it. During the time that these various enterprises were under his supervision he was running a number of farms and trading extensively in stock. It is esti- mated that he built and owned at one time half the residences and busi- ness properties in Perry. His life was so wrapped up in the growth and upbuilding of Perry that he may be said to have been the father of the town, and it should by all rights bear his name today. He was a man ever ready to lend a hand where a fellowbeing appeared to be try- ing to help himself, and the hospitality, charity and liberality of himself and his wife were of the kind which characterized old times in Ken- tucky. He smiled at all criticisms inspired by jealously and seemed able to coin into gold the baseless attacks and ingratitude of others. Intemperance, idleness and gambling were abhorrent to him, and he trained his children in habits of industry, the spirit of progress and the love of humanity. His fondness for fishing took him out on a jaunt of that sort for a time each year, and he never missed a good performance at the local opera house, where he might always be seen in the company of his wife.

Thomas Franklin Gill was married on November 18, 1852, to Sarah A. Moor, a daughter of William Moor, of Bath county, Kentucky. Mr. Gill died at Biloxi, Mississippi, on September 28, 1897, and Mrs. Gill passed away in Perry, Missouri, in March, 1909. Mr. Gill was a many sided man, possessing a strong physical and mental vigor that made him fit to dominate in every field of activity with which he permitted him- self to become identified. He had a pleasing manner, and was an enter- taining and brilliant conversationalist. He was a Democrat, but he held himself aloof from politics, and in his last years he drifted away from the church with which he and his wife united when in their younger days. Five years previous to his death he removed to Mississippi, and died of yellow fever at Biloxi in that state, just before he would have reached the three score and ten year mark.

The issue of Thomas F. and Sallie A. Gill were Sarah Dorothea, born May 17, 1854, and died July 24, 1860; John Henry Clay, born October 10, 1855, and died September 22, 1864; Mary Bell, born December 5, 1856, married E. H. Ralls and died of yellow fever at Biloxi, Mississippi, October 28, 1897; Georgia Cassandra, born February 5, 1858, is the wife of J. A. Clark, of whom mention is found on other pages of this work, and is a resident of Perry, Missouri; Samuel Chriswell, of whom a com- plete sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Billy Moor, born Novem- ber 1, 1863, died June 17, 1868; May Tompkins, born June 20, 1865, concerning whom mention will be found on other pages of this biographi- cal history ; and Emma Young, born September 13, 1867, and died July 13, 1878.

SAMUEL CHRISWELL GILL. To enter into an extended account of the ancestry of Samuel Chriswell Gill is not required in this particular sketch, for the parentage, ancestry and life careers of at least three generations is given in another sketch appearing on other pages of this work, in the life of Thomas Franklin Gill, the honored father of the subject. Economy of space and brevity is therefore secured in this sketch by eliminating more than the most cursory mention of the par- entage of Mr. Gill, and the reader is referred to the life record of Thomas Franklin Gill, now deceased, for a concise and comprehensive sketch of that worthy gentleman, with a number of details concerning the early history of this well established family.

. Samuel Chriswell Gill is the cashier of the Perry Bank, the pioneer bank of this city and an institution founded by his father. The bank is

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one of the solid and substantial financial institutions of the district, and its record has been one that has shed a reflected honor upon the memory of its founder. Born on a farm near to the city of Perry, Missouri, on March 23, 1860, Mr. Gill's life, though devoted to various phases of busi- ness, has followed somewhat closely the path defined by his distinguished father, and the spirit of the noted founder of the family in Missouri goes marching on in the life of his son. It may be stated briefly that Mr. Gill is the son of Thomas Franklin Gill and his wife, Sarah A. Moor, both of whom are now deceased, their deaths having occurred in Biloxi, Mis- sissippi, and in Perry, Missouri, respectively, and that he is one of their eight children, all of whom are now departed from this life with the ex- ception of the subject and one sister and one brother.

Samuel Chriswell Gill, who was named for his paternal grandfather, passed his youth and childhood on the farm and the country schools of his locality gave him such elementary education as he received. His father discovered in him the element for a business life, rather than for the making of a successful farmer, and he was encouraged to enter a store in Perry, where he spent about six years. After six years behind the counter, he was made assistant cashier of the Perry Bank, the insti- tution launched by his father in 1885. Since that time he has been actively identified with the bank, and in 1908 succeeded J. A. Clark as cashier of that institution. Mr. Gill has always maintained certain farming interests, however, and owns a splendid farm of almost a section adjacent to the city of Perry, upon which he has demonstrated his ability as a feeder and grower of stock, thus proving himself the true son of his paternal ancestors, who ever showed themselves capable of making a success of more than one venture at a time.

On January 22, 1885, Mr. Gill was married to Miss Mary Alice Leighton, a daughter of Mrs. Mary Shrout, of Bath county, Kentucky. Mrs. Gill was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863, and is the mother of Madge, the wife of Howard E. Wilkinson, of Lexington, Kentucky ; Leighton M., who is with the Perry bank, and is married to Rhue Ruckle, and Thomas F., a pupil in the grade schools of Perry.

Mr. Gill's inclination toward fraternity work has carried him into the blue lodge of the Masons, of which he is past master. The family are members of the Christian church.

J. ALVA CLARK. A dominant figure in the financial world of North- eastern Missouri, J. Alva Clark, vice-president of the Perry Bank, has been connected with that institution for a period covering a quarter of a century. Mr. Clark comes of old pioneer stock. He was born May 16, 1853, near Frankford, Pike county, Missouri, and the next year his par- ents moved to Monroe county, near the village of Florida, and in that community the children of the family were reared. The father of J. Alva Clark was Martin J. Clark, born in Montgomery county, Ken- tucky, June 7, 1825, and came to Missouri in 1852. His father was James Clark, of Culpeper county, Virginia, and an Indian fighter and soldier in the War of 1812. The latter went to Kentucky when it was a new country and remained there until far past middle life, when he fol- lowed the procession of emigration westward and finally located in Mon- roe county, Missouri. There he became a successful farmer and stock- man, and passed away in 1863. He married Eliza A. Burroughs, also of Culpeper county, Virginia, and their children were: Mary J., who became the wife of Alvin Ringo, of Audrain county, Missouri; Eliza J., who married (first) Dr. Nelson, and (second) Robert Sinclair, of Audrain county ; Michael B., a farmer of Monroe county ; Martin J., the father of J. Alva Clark; and James W., a resident of Paris, Missouri.

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Martin J. Clark was a man of extraordinary energy and business ability and demonstrated his peculiar adaptability to the mule and horse business. He was authority on all classes of stock and it was his enthusi- asm for mules that inspired the farmers of Monroe county to engage ex- tensively in the industry. His connection with the sales stables of Ed- wards, Irvin & Clark, of St. Louis, covered a long period of years and, being an auctioneer, his was a leading part in the conduct of the firm. His acquaintance with stockmen over Northeastern Missouri gave him positions as a superintendent of departments of horses and mules at county fairs and frequently brought him the distinction of marshal-of- the-day at such county gatherings. He had an attractive personality, was always well dressed, a splendid conversationalist and a speaker of much force and ability. His physique was vigorous, above the average of avoirdupois, and he sat a horse like royalty itself. Just before his marriage, Martin J. Clark went to Menard county, Illinois, and remained until 1852, when he came to Missouri, as above stated. He was married in Illinois, March 23, 1851, to Miss Mary E. Ringo, daughter of Alvin Ringo. Mr. Clark died in November, 1904, and his widow followed him to the grave during the next year. Their children were: J. Alva ; Alice R., wife of Dr. Thomas Chowning, surgeon of the Levering Hospital of Hannibal; and Joseph L., of Perry, Missouri, who was born on the farm near Florida, Missouri, September 18, 1861, remained a farmer and stockman until his removal to Perry in 1884, when he engaged in busi- ness. He purchased the milling industry of Charles Menke in 1911 and is still conducting that business. In 1887 he was married to Miss Sarah Helen LaFrance, daughter of Marcus P. LaFrance, a pioneer of Perry and among the chief builders of the place.

The life of J. Alva Clark was purely rural until far beyond his twenty-first year. He took up the earnest business of his career with a liberal education gained in the schools of Florida and Westminster Col- lege, at Fulton, and came into contact with the stock business by asso- ciation with his father. When he came to Perry in 1876, he associ- ated himself with S. B. Smith in the drug business and then in the livery business, and for a time had the mail contract from Laddonia and Mex- ico to Perry. Disposing of this interest he entered the Perry Bank in 1888, as assistant cashier. After a year he was made cashier and served as such until 1910 when he was succeeded by -Samuel C. Gill and himself elected one of the vice-presidents of the bank, being actively connected with the conduct of the institution. Despite his separation from an active connection with farming, Mr. Clark has never been without a large responsibility in the profitable conduct of his real estate. He owns land in Monroe, Ralls and Audrain counties and is one of the well-known feeders of cattle, mules and swine of this section.

On October 17, 1876, Mr. Clark was married to Miss Georgia Gill, a daughter of Thomas F. Gill, whose record is among those contained in this work. Two sons were born to this union: Gill, of Billings, Mon- tana; and Charles M., who died in 1911, at the age of twenty-eight years. The latter was an employe of the New England National Bank of Kansas City, and a young man with a bright and promising future.

WILLIAM L. POLLOCK, county judge of Putnam county, Missouri, and a resident of York township, is a representative of a family that has been prominent in the life of that community for over sixty years, and his own active career spans nearly half a century. Aside from his official station, he is well known as one of the foremost agriculturists and stock growers of Putnam county, who while laboring effectively in the acquirement of a personal success has at the same time been a strong con-

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tributor toward the development of the natural resources of the county.

The Pollocks are Scotch and Judge Pollock is of the first genera- tion native of American soil. Thomas Pollock, his father, born in Scot- land in 1805, grew up in his native land and there was married in 1830 to Isabella Wilson. For fifteen years he followed the sea and during that time made seven voyages to the West Indies. About 1838, while he was making one of these trips, Isabelle Pollock with her two chil- dren, James and John, emigrated to the United States, being some six weeks on their voyage across the Atlantic and making the trip alone with strangers. Joining his family, Thomas Pollock located in Pennsyl- vania, where he engaged in brickmaking and for ten years was fore- man of a brick manufacturing plant that supplied brick for iron smelt- ing works that shipped to Pittsburg. Here he also attended school with his eldest son in order to correct the deficiencies of his education. In the spring of 1851 the family left their Pennsylvania home and migrated to Missouri, locating near St. John, Putnam county, July 22, 1851. Thomas Pollock here continued to be employed as a brick maker and also engaged in farming. He was quite successful in a business way and left an estate of some four hundred acres at the time of his death in 1879. He and his wife reared four sons and three daughters, viz., James, now deceased; John, a resident of Oklahoma; David W., deceased in Putnam county in 1910; William L., of this review ; Mrs. Isabella Berry, of St. John, Missouri; Mrs. Agnes J. Daniels, of Sey- mour, Iowa; and Mrs. Barbara Ellen Godfrey, of St. John, Missouri.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 79

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