USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume V > Part 30
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William Gentry, the father of Mrs. Theodore Shelton, born April 14, 1818, at Old Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, was among the most enterprising farmers and successful stock breeders in Missouri, owning and cultivating six thousand acres of land near Sedalia, Missouri. He was the son of Reuben Estes Gentry and Elizabeth White who came from Madison county, Kentucky, and settled in Missouri in 1809. For a long time William Gentry was president of the State Agricultural Fair Association. At the same time he held numerous responsible, honorable and important positions by appointment and on various occasions was chosen representative of the agricultural and live stock interests of the state, in which his pride and enthusiasm were paramount. It was through his efforts that the first live stock fairs in the state were organized and held their first exhibitions, 1857-8, in his woodland pasture, a half mile north of his colonial home, where generous hospitality was extended to his many friends from adjoining counties. The premiums were solid silver, made by Jaccard & Company of St. Louis (coin), his five daughters each receiving among her wedding gifts a half dozen of these silver water cups, besides pitchers, ladles, spoons, etc. John R., the youngest son of Major William Gentry, raised among his many famous horses the "Great John R. Gentry," who electrified the world with his speed, lowering the record to 2:001%. He was unquestionably the greatest horse of his day and generation. He was born January 1, 1888, died December 14, 1920, and was buried in the State Fair grounds at Nashville, Tennessee, with all the honor and love befitting one so great. For twenty years Major Gentry served as county judge of Pettis county, filling the position until 1862, when he was appointed major of the Fortieth Regiment of enrolled militia by Governor Gamble, so serving until the regiment was mustered out. Sub- sequently he served with the same rank in the Fifth Regiment of provisional militia until the close of the war. His many noble deeds firmly established him in the hearts of the people of Missouri. Though all of his own and his wife's affiliations, by blood and association, had been with the south and though his people were large slaveholders, he opposed secession and remained loyal to the flag. In 1875 lie was appointed by
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Governor Hardin as one of the Missouri state managers for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1879 Governor John S. Phelps appointed him a delegate to a con- vention called in New York to form a National Agricultural Society. He was ap- pointed by Governor Marmaduke a member of the state board of health and at its first meeting was elected president and remained as such until his death on the 22d of May, 1890. In 1874 Judge Gentry was nominated by the people's party as candidate for governor. He received the vote of his county and good support from the state but was defeated by Charles H. Hardin. He had no real desire for office, however, his pref- erence being strong for the active pursuits of farming and other business enterprises. He was at one time president of the Lexington & St. Louis Railroad, was also a director of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, president of the Sedalia, Warsaw & Southern Railroad and for several years was agent for Pettis county in railroad matters. He and his brother, Richard Gentry, and General George R. Smith guaranteed the right- of-way through Pettis county for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. (See Gentry Family of America, p. 160.) On the 12th of November, 1840, William Gentry wedded Ann Redd Major, daughter of Lewis Redd Major and Mildred Elvira Thomson and granddaughter of John Major and Elizabeth Redd of Virginia. John Major was in the War of the Revolution and was with Washington at Valley Forge. Ann was born on her father's estate of over one thousand acres near Frankfort, Kentucky, July 23, 1824, and re- moved with her parents in 1833 to Missouri, where they settled on the beautiful estate "Sunny Hill," eight miles northwest of Sedalia, Missouri. The colonial house will be good for another generation. The bricks were made on the place by his slaves. It has always been owned and occupied by his descendants until recently. The wedding was one of the most notable social events in central Missouri at that early date. Ann Redd Major was a lady of rare beauty of character and refinement, gifted with every domestic virtue, a descendant of the chivalry of Virginia. She was noted for her tender sympathy and generosity. Sick soldiers of the Civil war were nursed back to health in her home. Strangers in need were given shelter and protection. After the Civil war it was a familiar sight to meet a half dozen negro women and children coming down the road from the big brick house, each laden with baskets of apples, potatoes, meal, flour, bacon, sugar and coffee, proofs of her sympathetic, generous nature. None ever asked in vain. She was always the friend of the needy, whose burdens she ever tried to lighten. Her gentle manner, her unbounded hospitality, her unselfish devotion to home, friends and family made her beloved by all. A copy of her portrait will be found in Volume II, page 73, Americans of Gentle Birth.
To this union were born eleven children, four of whom are still living, four having died after reaching the age of thirty years and each having lived to establish hospitable homes of their own. Though the family was a large one, all of the children were given the best possible advantages for acquiring a finished education and as a result each member, as well as the father and mother, was noted for culture in literature and the refined arts. The daughter, Jane Redd Gentry, reared at the family home, Oak Dale, near Sedalia, attended school in Georgetown, Missouri, and also became a pupil in the Forest Grove Seminary under Professor Anthony Haynes and Professor A. A. Neal. In 1864-5 she was a student in the Visitation Convent at St. Louis, Missouri, and through. out her life she has manifested a keen interest in literature and all those things which have cultural value. On the 20th of February, 1868, she became the wife of Theodore Shelton, of St. Louis, a leading merchant of the city, where they have since resided. Mr. Shelton throughout this entire period has continued in the wholesale hat, cap and glove business, having one of the largest establishments of this character in the cen. tral section of the Mississippi valley. To Mr. and Mrs. Shelton were born two children: Richard Theodore, who is now the president of the Shelton Panama Hat Company on Washington avenue in St. Louis; and William Gentry, president of the Shelton Elec- tric Company of New York city.
Mrs. Shelton is entitled to membership in all the patriotic societies and has be- come identified with many of the patriotic societies of the country. She is now a member of the board of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Mis- souri; also belongs to the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry, which she joined on its organization; and is the first vice president of the Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century. She is a charter member of the National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of Missouri and has been the treasurer since its organization. She is a Daughter of the American Revolution under five Virginia ancestors and a member of the National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 under two an-
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cestors. Mrs. Shelton and her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Gentry Skinner, were among the organizers and charter members of the Missouri State Society of United States Daughters of 1812, and the former at the first meeting was elected registrar, while Mrs. Skinner was chosen a director, and these offices they continued to fill through the first seven years. In October, 1915, Mrs. Shelton was elected state president, occupying the posi- tion for two and a half years when she was unanimously elected honorary state presi- dent for life. The state board presented her with a silver vase, with the insignia of the United States Daughters of 1812, Society of Missouri, engraved upon it, in token of their high esteem. In April, 1916, at the national council in Washington, D. C., she was elected the national auditor of the National Society. She attended the national board at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October, 1918, and at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1919. She served for two years as regent of the St. Louis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization of four hundred members, and she and her sister, Mrs. Skinner, were for many years delegates for the different organizations holding their national meetings in Washington, D. C. In April, 1917, at the national council held in Washington, she represented the 1812 Society as state president of Missouri and as national auditor. She was delegate to the Colonial Dames of America, representing Mrs. Eliot, the state president of Missouri. She was delegate to the con- gress of the Daughters of the American Revolution and has also been a delegate to the national convention of the Founders and Patriots of America.
Mrs. Shelton belongs to the State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia, is a member of the Missouri Historical Society, Jefferson Memorial St. Louis and the Valley Forge Historical Society of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. For a number of years she has been the St. Louis county and city chairman of the Old Trails Ocean to Ocean Highway and she and her sister, Mrs. Skinner, are charter members of the Chart Club Drawing Rooms, an organization unique and beautiful in sentiment. She is a member of the St. Louis Woman's Club and first vice chairman of the Mortality Tablet Com- mittee under Mrs. Ben F. Gray, the tablet to be erected in the city hall. During the war she was a member of the Women's Committee, Council of National Defense, under Mrs. B. F. Bush, and also a member of the Navy League. From the beginning of the war until now Mrs. Shelton has been untiring in her efforts to cheer and comfort the sick and wounded soldiers. Her grandson, William Gentry Shelton, Jr., was lieutenant in the air service. Her nephew, Harry Duke Skinner, went overseas as a member of the American Expeditionary Force. The youth of her family all over the country responded valiantly to the call to arms. In February, 1917, at the home of Mrs. Shelton, was formed a Red Cross unit among the Daughters of 1812, the first unit formed in St. Louis, on which occasion George Simmons was the speaker. The members of this unit were most enthusiastic in their work throughout the war period and accomplished great good. When Mrs. Shelton was not sewing at the Kinloch Red Cross Headquarters, making bandages, etc., at Washington University and Barnes Hospital, she was at home knitting for the Navy League or doing other war service that promoted the welfare of American soldiers in camp and field. She was awarded a medal by the United States treasury department for patriotic service in behalf of the Liberty loans. Mrs. Shelton was chosen chairman of the patriotic organizations for the armistice parade on the 11th of November, 1920, and marched in the parade from her home to the Municipal theatre.
Mrs. Shelton was appointed a member of the Missouri State Centennial Committee of 1916 and was requested to send the names of two delegates from the U. S. D. 1812 Society of Missouri. She named Mrs. C. C. Evans, of Sedalia, and Mrs. Hugh Miller of Kansas City, thus representing the east, west and central sections of the state. Mrs. Shelton has worked hard and faithfully with the State Society U. S. D. 1812 of Missouri for the bronze roll of fame of the Missouri Pioneers and takes great pride in this beautiful tribute of love to the foundation builders of Missouri. It is the most valuable contribution to early Missouri history that has been accomplished. This magnificent bronze tablet hangs upon the west wall in Jefferson Memorial, made by Gorham and designed by R. P. Bringhurst. Mrs. Shelton presided at this memorable meeting when it was presented and her grandson, Richard Douglass Shelton, drew aside the silken flag that unveiled it. The brass cylinders containing valuable data for each of the names are kept in the vault and added to from time to time.
Aside from the patriotic organizations with which Mrs. Shelton is connected she is much interested in the "Gentry Family of America," an organization which was formed by herself, her brother, Richard T. Gentry of Sedalia, Missouri, and her cousin,
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General W. H. Gentry of Lexington, Kentucky. At their first meeting in August, 1898, hield at Crab Orchard Springs, Kentucky, Richard Gentry of Kansas City, Missouri, was elected president and historian and has published a history of the family which is found in many libraries.
Notwithstanding all of her many, varied and useful activities Mrs. Shelton has been before and above all else a home maker for fifty-three years and gathers about her the loved ones from almost every state in the Union. She inherited the strong character, generous impulses and amiable qualities that distinguished her parents. Her nature, too, is as radiant as a day in June and hier hospitality is unbounded. The year before the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held in St. Louis she gathered the scattered branches of the Gentry family into a reunion at her palatial home and thereafter until the close of the Fair she entertained lavishly and untiringly, her guests coming from every section of the country. No home is more popular in St. Louis, nor are any citizens more highly esteemed than Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Shelton.
ALBERT J. MILLER, M. D.
The tendency of the age is toward specialization. Comparatively few men who enter upon a professional career attempt to cover the entire scope of activity in that field but concentrate their efforts and attention upon a particular line, so that they can thereby reach a high degree of skill and efficiency. This course has been followed hy Dr. Albert J. Miller, a St. Louis physician, who has largely given his attention to cancers and skin diseases. Pennsylvania numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Goldsboro, September 20, 1854. His father, Benjamin Miller, was also a native of the Keystone state, where his ancestors had lived through several generations, although the family is of Scotch origin. Benjamin Miller was a successful farmer and resided in Pennsylvania throughout his entire life, his labors being ended in death in 1877, when he was sixty-two years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Susan Kunkle, was a native of Pennsylvania and of German descent. She died in 1898, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years.
Dr. Miller of this review was the eighth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. He attended the public schools of Mount Wolf, Pennsylvania, and also the State Normal School at Millersville. He then took up the profession of teaching, which he followed in Pennsylvania and Ohio for a period of seven years but regarded this merely as an initial step to other professional labor, becoming imbued with a desire to enter upon the practice of medicine. He therefore - began studying with that end in view, matriculating in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1883. In the same year he entered active practice in St. Louis, where he has remained, except for the period spent in Ohio, and with the passing of time he has built up an extensive and important prac- tice, in the conduct of which he has been very successful. He is extremely careful in the diagnosis of his cases and his professional judgment is at all times sound and reliable. He has his office in the Holland building and has occupied space on the same floor since the 1st of May, 1899, or for a period of more than twenty-one years. From 1887 until 1890 he had charge of the post-graduate school and polyclinic in St. Louis and from 1891 until 1898 had charge of the cancer and skin department in the Surgical Hotel Hospital at Columbus, Ohio. Since the latter date he has specialized in the treatment of cancer and skin diseases and has become a recognized authority in this branch of practice. He has been called to attend patients in twenty- two states and in Canada.
In St. Louis, on the 7th of August, 1884, Dr. Miller was married to Miss Emma W. Wesseling, a native of St. Louis and a daughter of the late Rudolph and Johanna Wesseling, who were of German hirth and became residents of St. Louis in 1839. Dr. and Mrs. Miller have one son, Clayton P., who was born in St. Louis, May 10, 1887, and who married Miss Hope Goodson, of this city. They have one daughter, June Hope Miller, born in St. Louis, November 30, 1915.
Dr. Miller is a republican in his political views but has never been an office seeker. During the World war he was one of the four-minute men and was very helpful in support of the Red Cross and other war activities, doing all in his power to win public cooperation with these organizations. His life has ever been actuated
DR. ALBERT J. MILLER
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by a laudable ambition. He worked his way through college, determined to win success if it could be accomplished by untiring and honorable effort, and today he stands among the able and prominent physicians of St. Louis, his practice being large and important.
RULIF M. MARTIN.
Rulif M. Martin was one of the organizers and promoters of the Redheffer Envelope Company, a growing young business concern of Kansas City, and by reason of the enterprise which he has manifested in this connection he deserves recognition as one of the progressive young manufacturers of western Missouri. He was born in Kansas City in 1895, and is a son of Edward R. Martin. In the acquirement of his education he attended the State University of Missouri, from which he was graduated, and during vacation periods he was employed by the State Historical Society, thus largely earning the funds which enabled him to pursue his college course.
Mr. Martin is one of the veterans of the World war, for he was with the American Expeditionary Force in France and was in active duty on the battlefields of St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. At length he was wounded and in January, 1919, he returned home after ten months' overseas service as second lieutenant. He was attached to the Headquarters Company of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Infantry and made a most creditable military record. In 1918 he became associated with Fred N. Redheffer in organizing the Redheffer Envelope Company, which they have since success- fully conducted. They are rapidly developing a business of attractive proportions, bringing them a desirable measure of success.
Mr. Martin was united in marriage to Miss Mildred S. Strobach, of Rolla, Missouri. Fraternally he is a Knights Templar Mason and also a member of the Mystic Shrine and is a worthy follower of the teachings and purposes of the craft. He is widely recognized as an energetic young business man and all who know him recognize the fact that his future career will be well worth watching.
REV. HAROLD LOCKE READER.
Rev. Harold Locke Reader, pastor of the Webster Groves Baptist church was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, May 6, 1885, a son of John J. and S. Emma Reader. On his mother's side he is descended from the family of the English philosopher, John Locke. He was reared in Illinois, beginning his primary education at Carrollton, Greene county, while in June, 1903, he was graduated from the high school in East St. Louis. Following his graduation he attended the Washington Unifersity in St. Louis, becoming at that institution a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Later he entered Shurtleff College at Alton, Illinois, where he was twice president of his literary society, the Sigma Phi. He was ordained to the gospel ministry while pastor of the Winstanley Baptist church in East St. Louis at the age of twenty-two years. In April, 1910, he was called to the pastorate of the West Park Baptist church in St. Louis. His interest in young men led to the erection by that church of a gymnasium building around which the activities of the young men could center.
Harold Locke Reader was married in 1911 to Jennie L. Hall and soon afterwards the state of his wife's health necessitated a change of residence to Denver, Colorado. In 1913 he returned from the west and in August of that year was called to the newly organized Baptist church in Webster Groves. This church is unique in that from a mempership of thirty-two meeting in a rented hall, it has grown in the seven years to a membership of three hundred owning its own beautiful property all acquired without the aid of one penny from the mission boards. The record is unique in Baptist history in St. Louis.
Mr. Reader is an ex-president of the St. Louis Baptist Ministers Conference. He is very active in Masonic circles, being at the present time district deputy grand mas- ter of the fifty-seventh district and past master of Wellston Lodge, No. 613, A. F. & A. M. He Is also a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the council, a Knight Templar and has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.
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, Mr. Reader was one of the first clergymen to offer his services in the late war and in July, 1917, was appointed chaplain of the Fifth Missouri Infantry, the famous St. Louis regiment to which Marshall Joffre personally presented a regimental flag. Later at Camp Doniphan when this regiment was consolidated with the First Missouri In- fantry to form the One Hundred and Thirty-eight Infantry he was transferred to the One Hundred and Tenth Engineers of the Thirty-fifth Division, with which regiment he served throughout the war, being on four battle fronts in France-near Amiens, the Vosges, St. Mihiel and the Argonne. He was granted an indefinite leave of absence by his church when he entered military service and in May, 1919, resumed his pastorate. In November, 1919, he was elected the first Post Commander of Webster Groves Memor- ial Post, No. 172, of the American Legion, which office he still holds. This in brief is the outline of his career. Those who read between the lines will see the earnestness of purpose that has always actuated him, high ideals which he has kept constantly before him, and the practical methods which he has followed in securing their adop- tion. There is about Mr. Reader nothing of that aloofness which too often marks the scholarly man of the ministry. Intensely human in all of his interests to the point of understanding human nature he is constantly seeking to inspire and encourage those whom he meets to choose those things which are most enduring and satisfying and which make for the upbuilding of the highest character.
BRECKINRIDGE JONES.
Breckinridge Jones, president of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company of St. Louis who has been one of the directing officers of this corporation for more than thirty years, was born in Boyle county, Kentucky, on the 2nd of October, 1856, his parents being Daniel W. and Rebecca Robertson (Dunlap) Jones. His early educational oppor- tunities were supplemented by a course in Centre College at Danville, Kentucky, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1875. Before entering upon the study of law he taught school for one year in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. He then studied law for two years in the office of Colonel Thomas P. Hill of Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky, and was admitted to the bar in that county in 1878. In October of that year he moved to St. Louis. He attended the St. Louis Law School in the session of 1878-9 and attended the summer Law School at the University of Virginia in 1879. In the same year he opend a law office in St. Louis where he con- tinued in practice for nine years, when by reason of the business interests of himself and a number of friends and clients he went to New Decatur, Alabama, as vice presi- dent and general manager of the Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company, then the largest corporation in North Alabama. After a successful reorganization of that company in 1890 Mr. Jones returned to St. Louis where he resumed law practice, but after a brief period he was elected the first secretary of the newly incorporated Mississippi Valley Trust Company. Throughout the intervening period of thirty years he has given his attention to constructive effort, executive control and legal direction of the interests of this strong financial concern of which he is now the president. In 1896 he inaugurated the movement to form a national organization of the Trust Com- panies of the United States and is the recognized "father of the Trust Company sec- tion" of the American Bankers Association. In 1915 he was the chairman of the commission that wrote the revision of the banking laws of Missouri, enacted that year by the general assembly.
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