A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 91

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

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Like the other members of his father's family, Roy McFarland was liberally educated. He and his brother Byron pursued their advanced studies in the University of Missouri, at Columbia, Missouri. After his graduation from high school in Monroe, Roy had prepared himself for teaching and his brother had looked to a medical career. Later, how- ever, both readjusted their plans and each has successfully followed a business career. The first business experience which our subject obtained was through his participation in mercantile business in Renssalaer, Mis- souri. This occupied his attention for a space of four years, at the end of which time he took up the milling business as one of the purchasers of the Monroe Milling Company. In this line he has continued to thrive, has made a firm place for himself in divers of the city's public interests and has established his attractive home.

Mrs. Roy McFarland was formerly Miss Annie Finley, a daughter of Frank and Sarah Finley of Renssalaer, the father being a native of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland's home has been completed by the advent of five children : Alleen; Leo; Alvin; Frances, whose young life closed in May, 1912; and Clyde.

The church affiliations of the family are Catholic and Methodist. Politically Mr. McFarland is a Democrat, but without interest in office- holding, for his business responsibilities engross his main attention.

The enterprise which Mr. McFarland represents is the only milling industry in Monroe City. The plant was erected by Magown & Kent in 1890 as a merchant mill, and its capacity is one hundred and twenty- five barrels. Its products are marketed chiefly within the state of Missouri, where they have the desirable reputation of being first-calss goods and a credit to their manufacturers.

JOHN SHEARMAN. Rich in years and in a record for extensive and useful activity is John Shearman, a retired business man of Monroe City, Missouri. A native of this state, he comes of an old Virginia family, said to be lineally descended from Revolutionary patriots, includ- ing that great leader of the struggle and signer of the Declaration of Independence-Roger Sherman. Joined by marriage were a line of this family and one of the Virginia family of Parrot. The home of the resultant household was in Old Orange county, Virginia, now Green county. The sons and daughters of that home were four sons and three daughters: John H., William, Thomas and George; Elizabeth, wife of a Mr. Douglas; Ailsee, wife of Mr. Jennings and Fannie married Mr. White. As John H. Shearman (the father of the special subject of this sketch) was the only one of these who has come to Missouri, further data herein will be confined to him and his descendants. At the home-

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stead above located, John H. Sherman was born in the year 1795. He was trained and educated as a country lad and chose to spend his life in the same pursuits in which he was reared. He indicated his patriotic sentiments by enlisting for service in the War of 1812, but before he could reach the field for active duty, that conflict had been closed. John H. Shearman married Margaret Rucker, also a Virginian and a daughter of William Rucker and his wife, nee Thornton. Of the Rucker-Shearman union were born Elizabeth C., who became Mrs. James A. Reed of Howard county, Missouri and who is now deceased ; Alice, who died unmarried; William, who died in California in 1861, unmarried; George, of Folsom, California; and John, the subject of this account. Margaret Rucker Shearman died on March 22, 1833. John H. Shearman remarried, making Martha Fray the wife of his later years. Of this union were born, Mary F., now Mrs. Hartford Carrol, of Goss, Missouri; T. B., deceased at Fresno, California; Lncy M., of Ozark, Arkansas; Susan F., who is Mrs. W. T. Clark of Santa Ana, California; Jennie, who is now Mrs. A. J. Anstin, of Goss; C. A. Shearman of Ozark, Arkansas; and Martha H., now Mrs. J. H. Grady, of Monroe City, Missouri.

In 1832 John H. Shearman had settled upon a farm six miles east of Paris, Missouri. There, on March 5th of the following year, was born his son John, whose name forms the caption of this review. From the primitive country schools of his native community he gathered what he characterizes as a smattering of education. On reaching the years of manhood he left the farm to learn the trade of wagon-making. In Paris, Missouri, he worked first with S. P. Burkett of that place until he had mastered the different phases of the work. He subsequently established a wagon shop of his own in the same town and conducted his business there for five years. At the end of that time he felt anew the attraction of farm life and determined to combine its advan- tages with his occupation of wagon-making. Removing to Marion county, he settled a shop in the country a few miles north of Monroe City, where he pursued his business together with the supervision of a farm. These combined activities he thus began in 1856 and continued them in his chosen location for ten years. This period covered the years in which the Civil war was fought to a finish. Mr. Shearman was seriously annoyed and threatened because of his southern tendencies and suf- fered the effects of the draft, although a substitute went to the front in his place.

In 1866 Mr. Shearman purchased agricultural property adjoining Monroe City and discontinued his wagon-making. After four years he sold the farm and took up his residence in Monroe, where he con- ducted a livery business. From this he made a natural shift to the business of merchandise. First as a member of the firm of Jackson & Shearman, and later as one of the partners in that of Shearman & Rouse, he was for five years engaged as a purveyor to the people of the many mercantile necessities of every-day life. His popular and lucrative business was interrupted, however, in 1885. At that time he was ap- pointed by President Cleveland as the successor of B. F. Tucker in the office of postmaster. He served for a little more than four years.

During his service as postmaster, Mr. Shearman established such an excellent reputation as a public official that his eligibility for other offices was promptly considered and soon after his leaving the post- office he was inducted into the office of county assessor. The election was for a two-years' term. At its expiration, Mr. Shearman was re- elected for a term of four years. During his service, it was quite natural that one of his sons, well qualified for such work, should assist Vol. III-39

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him as deputy. It was also a logical sequence that at the close of John Shearman's second term as assessor, his son should succeed to the office for which he had thus been well prepared; so it was that the father and son changed places, the former becoming the deputy of the latter.

Ultimately leaving official activity, John Shearman again sought the quietude and healthful exercise of farm life. Near Monroe City he once more became a land-holder and during his remaining vigorous years devoted himself to the productive employments of cultivating the soil. Still a citizen of Monroe City, he has contributed to its material devel- opment by the erection of three residences, two of which are still charged to him on the tax rolls of the county. Mr. Shearman is a stockholder and director of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Monroe City.

With the passing of the generously allotted years of his life, it has been given to Mr. Shearman to witness the growth and success of chil- dren and grandchildren. It was in 1856 that he was first married. Elizabeth C. Howe was a daughter of John Howe of Marion county, Missouri, whither he had come from Kentucky, and of his wife, Maria Kizer-Howe. Of the Howe-Shearman marriage two children were born. Both were sons and were named respectively William E. and John H. Their mother passed from earthly life in 1873. On May 30, 1876, John Shearman wedded Miss Ella L. Brown, a member of a Vermont family. Her demise occurred on November 25, 1910, and she left no children.

The elder son of John Shearman is well known in Monroe City and vicinity. 1858 was the year of his birth and Marion county his native place. His early occupation was farming. About 1905 he succeeded his father in the office of county assessor and filled that office for four years. Since that time he has been engaged in merchandise in Monroe City and has become one of the indispensable business men of the place. His wife was formerly Miss Julia E. Helton and their marriage took place in 1884. They are the parents of five sons and daughters: Virgil C., John Adam, Manona and Laona, twins; and Willie May.

John H. Shearman, second son of John Shearman, our subject, was born in Marion county in 1861. His occupation is farming. He mar- ried Miss Helen Frank and is the father of one child, named John Frank. They are residents of the state of Michigan.

The worthy gentleman to whom this sketch is dedicated is spending his latter days in well-deserved peace and retirement. Though not active in business, he retains his interest in all movements of humanity. He has been a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, giving to it his sincere loyalty and wholehearted service, having con- tinuously been one of the boards of trustees of the local congregation. He is also- a Blue Lodge member of Masonic order, and in countless other ways has become closely and prominently identified with the currents of life in Monroe City.

JOHN D. ROBEY is the senior member of the Robey-Robinson Lumber Company, with headquarters at Monroe City, Missouri. He has been an important factor in the commercial and industrial life of Monroe City, and the system of lumber yards which his company has installed in Monroe, Ralls and Marion counties, has been a valuable asset to the general prosperity of the section.

It was in 1849 that Mrs. Martha E. Robey moved her little family from the old home in Hickman county, Kentucky, to Missouri. Before her marriage she had been a Miss Martha Bell, and after the death of her husband, she determined that the state of Missouri offered her better opportunities to rear her family. She settled near Shelbina,

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Missouri, and her children all grew up to be respected and' valued members of the communities in which they made their homes. Her children were Mary J., who married. William Winston; John, who mar- ried a Miss Cooper; William, who was twice married, both of his wives being from the Abell family; James R .; Lizzie, who became Mrs. David Lanham; Anna, who became the wife of Thomas Riddle, and "Kit," who died in Alton, Illinois, while imprisoned there during the Civil war.

Of these children, James R. Robey became the father of John D. Robey. He was born in Hickman county, Kentucky, in 1840, and he grew up on his mother's backwoods farm, knowing little of books, but much of farming in a crude way. His boyhood was principally spent in hard work, but he laid the foundations for his future success as a farmer. When he was eighteen years of age, he broke away from the narrow confines of the farm and tasted independence for the first time in his life. Joining a party bound for the Pacific Coast, he crossed with them the great plains and made the weary journey to California. Here he worked for several years until the call for volunteers to take part in the battle for a united nation reached the coast, and he volunteered at once for this duty, serving in the Union army during the last three years of the conflict. His residence in the west covered a period of six years, and at the end of this time he found his heart was still back in Missouri, so he returned, coming home by way of the Isthmus of Panama and a vessel bound for New York. Not long after reaching home Mr. Robey married Miss Lucy Mounce, a daughter of Samuel Mounce, who was a pioneer settler in Missouri, coming thence from Virginia. He settled in Florida, Missouri, and here Mrs. Robey was born, and grew to womanhood, Mark Twain being one of her childhood acquaintances. Mr. Robey returned to the occupation of his youth, becoming a grain and stockraiser in a modest way, and continuing in this business until his death, in 1906. Mrs. Robey is still living, and is the mother of four children, as follows: Timora, who is the wife of J. W. Gough, of Lakenan, Missouri; John D .; Margaret, who became the wife of J. A. Hollender, of Hunnewell, Missouri, and William H., of Perry, Missouri.

John D. Robey was a diligent student, and managed to gain more from the district schools than do most boys, for he became a teacher himself with no more training than the country school provided. He taught for five years in Monroe county and then took a business course . at the Hannibal Commercial College, from which he graduated in 1895. During the years in which he was teaching he added to his slender income by working on the farm during his vacations, and after com- pleting his commercial course, he once more returned to the farm for a time. In June, 1896, he entered the service of the Hannibal Saw-Mill- ing Company, at Clarence, Missouri, and after working for them four years in Clarence, he was transferred to Shelbina, Missouri, where he spent the next four years. During these eight years in which he worked on a salary, he observed that the lot of the salaried man was just about hopeless, and that unless he started out to work for himself he would probably never advance in the world.

Therefore, in 1904, he formed a partnership with James H. Robin- son, and they engaged in the lumber business. They purchased the plant which they now own in Monroe City and which is under the direct management of Mr. Robey, and in the fall of the same year they acquired the Hunnewell yard from Oscar Snelson, continuing to operate this yard until 1906. The partnership ended in December, 1905, when the busi- ness was incorporated into the Robey-Robinson Lumber Company, with

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Mr. Robinson as president, John D. Robey as secretary and treasurer and William H. Robey as vice-president. The capital stock amounts to eight thousand dollars and the company has been exceedingly pros- perous since its very beginning. In 1906 the stock of the Hunnewell yard was transferred to Perry, and in 1910 they enlarged their facilities by the erection of sheds and the establishment of a yard at New London. They further increased their business and it was necessary in 1911 to have more room, so they bought the yard of the Burlington Lumber Company at Palmyra, and thus completed their system of four yards, so placed that they have a wide territory upon which to draw.

William H. Robey, the vice-president of the Robey-Robinson Lumber Company, is the manager of the largest yard owned by the company, the one in Perry. He resides there and is a director in the Peoples Bank in that place.

John D. Robey is also interested in financial matters, being a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Monroe City, while Mr. Robin- son is a stockholder of the Marion County Savings Bank, in Palmyra, Missouri. The Robey brothers are not active in politics, although they firmly believe that it is the duty of every man to cast his ballot and they stand by the principles of the Democratic party.

John D. Robey was married on the 1st of March, 1896, to Miss Johnnie Hubbard, a daughter of Mrs. Ellen J. Hubbard, of Hunne- well, Missouri. Their children are Paul, Emmet, John D., Jr., and Leonard A.

EMMITT M. SIPPLE. Monroe City's most prominent educator is a man who is yet on the sunny side of middle life; who is the product of clean, honorable, unpretentious breeding; and who is the possessor of superior talents. He is a Missourian by birth, but of Kentucky parent- age and paternally of German and Scotch origin.

The founder of the Sipple family in America was one of those historic soldiers of Hesse, Germany, who engaged for money remuneration to fight for the British against their rebellious colonists in America. But when he reached the United States and more clearly understood the conditions of the Revolution, he deserted England's banner and joined the colonial troops. When that war was ended, he settled in Pennsyl- vania, where he established and reared a family. One of his sons, Henry Sipple, married Mary Mckenzie, who was a direct descendant from a clan of the Highland Scotch nobility, and founded his home in Somer- set county of the Blue Grass State, where he brought up his children, William, John, Henry, George, Lacy, James, Ann and Nancy Jane.

Lacy Sipple (who lived to become the father of the subject of this sketch ) was born in the above-mentioned section of the state of Kentucky on July 26, 1835. His acquaintance with the text-books of education was limited to rather slight attendance at the rural schools of his native community. His choice of vocation was that of a blacksmith, and while yet in the flush of early manhood he mastered that favorite diversion of Vulcan. He removed to Bucklin, Missouri, where he became a true type of the verse-honored "village blacksmith," although the anvil was planted under a goodly roof rather than under a "spreading chestnut tree." Scarcely had the ring of his useful occupation begun to announce the presence of a new mechanic in Bucklin, when the country found itself in the throes of civil warfare. Lacy Sipple entered the contest in the service of the state and under one of the "regular army" com- manders. He was commissioned a captain of one of the Union com- panies and thus served until the close of the struggle. Resuming then his stand at the forge, he won with his muscle the sufficient means of

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maintaining and educating his family. Lacy Sipple was, moreover, a man who was ever filled with a deep and altruistic anxiety for the wel- fare of men's souls. Ordained by the Methodist Episcopal church as one of its licensed local preachers, he served intermittently in more or less informal ministerial work for more than forty years. In the mar- riage of Lacy Sipple, the family of Dr. Shook, a German-born citizen of Kentucky, contributed its elements of sterling integrity to the household thus formed. His daughter, Mary A. Shook, became Mrs. Lacy Sipple. The resultant family consisted of eight children, only four of whom lived to maturity, three daughters and one son. Ella is Mrs. Charles Ellis of Weiser, Idaho; Viola is Mrs. C. C. Cupp of Lyons, Kansas ; Emmitt M. is the superintendent of the Monroe City schools and the special subject of the biographical account; and Pearl is Mrs. Clyde Seitz, of Natoma, Kansas.

January 5, 1879, was Emmitt M. Sipple's date of birth and Bucklin, Missouri, the place of his nativity. His intellectual development in the public schools of that community revealed his natural bent-the activities of teaching-and he turned his efforts toward definite prepa- ration for that profession. As a youth in his early maturity he began the work of instruction and as soon as possible secured the advantages to be gathered from attendance at a teacher's training school. He entered the Kirksville Normal. School, where he was graduated in 1907. This professional education he supplemented with summer school courses at the University of Missouri at Columbia and by other "extension work." All this training has been made yet more practical by a course in the Gem City Business College, where he concluded his commercial study in 1899.

The pedagogical career of Mr. Sipple began with a term in the rural school of Mt. Zion district, in Macon county. His success in rural school work led to his appointment to the principalship of the graded school system in Bucklin, his home town. As principal of the La Clede, Missouri, school, he gave five years of more advanced service. During two years of that time he was a member of the county board of educa- tion by appointment of the state board of education. Following that incumbency, he was honored by election to the office of school commis- sioner. In that capacity he gave his characteristically able efforts to the cause of education, until his resignation in 1908 in order to take up his work as superintendent of the schools of Monroe City.

Under Mr. Sipple's intelligent supervision, the conditions in Monroe City's educational system have been materially improved. In the high school, particularly, important growth and advance have taken place. Mr. Sipple's broad and purposive appreciation of vocational training has led to the installment in the high school of courses in agriculture, in commercial subjects and in manual arts. The attic of the high school building has been converted into a commodious and pleasant assembly room seated with opera chairs, and a well-equipped manual training room. In the latter, both the young men and young ladies of the high school have opportunity to show some development of their ability in manual accomplishment before they receive their diplomas. The equip- ment of this room, although not expensive, is probably the best in the state for the size of the town. The practical phases of the training the youth of Monroe City now receive extends through the graded school as well as the high school. Sewing and drawing are the manual arts that are taught the children in the earlier years of their courses. Not only have the building and the courses been made more purposive for useful education, but numerous additions have been added to the equipment for various departments. The cultural subjects have not

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been slighted, for Mr. Sipple's interest in vocational training is not that of a faddist or of a man of one idea. Literary subjects and esthetic development are warmly encouraged and are assisted by the presence of the recently acquired nucleus for the school library-a set of some eight hundred books-and the two pianos, one in the auditorium and the other in one of the grade rooms, for use in musical instruction for the grades. Much of the money for these cultural helps was earned by the pupils themselves in entertainments given for the purpose. The laboratory in which the students in the sciences of physics, chemistry and agriculture perform their experiments has been greatly en- larged as to useful apparatus. The term of school has moreover been lengthened to a year of nine full months. The high school enrollment has increased twenty-five per cent and the non-resident students number twice their enrollment of four years ago. From this young high school, one hundred and one students have been graduated and have gone forth to take their places in the affairs of men or in the ranks of those who are pursuing in collegiate institutions the courses there instituted for future representatives of special vocations and professions.

The home of Superintendent Sipple is one of the socially intellectual centers of the city. It is presided over by Mamie Fifield Sipple, his gracious and estimable wife. Mrs. Sipple is a daughter of Mrs. Phebe Fifield, who came to Missouri from New York and who lives at LaClede. Other members of Mrs. Sipple's parental home were the following: Neva Fifield, who is now Mrs. S. F. Felt, of Salina, Kansas; and Emma (the twin sister of Mrs. Sipple), now Mrs. N. Byrne, of LaClede, Missouri. To Superintendent and Mrs. Sipple one child has been born- a little daughter, named Mary Isabel, whose natal day is April 24, 1912.

Aside from his home and school interests, Mr. Sipple is a popular member of several social and other organizations. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, with the Masons, and with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Politically he is independent of party limitations. The societies of his profession are naturally of prime value and interest to this up-to-date educator. In the Missouri Teachers' Association he is a vigorously active member, being at the time of this writing first vice-president of the division of secondary schools, of that body. Mr. Sipple's educational influence and his intel- lectual personality have been felt in many places outside the confines of Monroe City. Both as an independent lecturer on popular subjects and as a speaker before Chautauqua assemblies, he has already become well known on Missouri platforms. He is the efficient manager of the Monroe City Chautauqua Association. Invitations to deliver commencement ad- dresses have been included among the calls he has received for lecture work. He is considered a coming man in the field of education from the public rostrum, as well as a leader in the great profession of class- room instruction and its wise, trustworthy supervision.

JAMES M. PROCTOR is a representative of the third generation of this numerous and worthy family of Monroe and Marion counties and he was born on the farm of his father, James M. Proctor, Sr., who recently passed away and who was one of the most successful business men in his locality. The latter was born near Philadelphia, Marion county, on March 2, 1837, was educated in the same institution with his brothers, and in a manner sufficiently liberal to enable him to teach school himself. After a brief career as a teacher he engaged in farming and in 1866 he purchased the George Bush farm adjacent to Monroe, and upon this and the broad acres he eventually added to it, he gave the vim and vigor of his life.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 91

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