USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume V > Part 4
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While no interest outside of business claims as much of Colonel Karling's attention as military matters, he is nevertheless widely and prominently known in Masonic circles, belonging to Ivanhoe Lodge, No. 446, A. F. & A. M .; Kansas City Chapter, No. 28, R. A. M .; Shekinah Council, No. 24, R. & S. M .; and Kansas City Commandery, No. 10, K. T., which has a very active drill team. He is like- wise identified with the Scottish Rite bodies, becoming a member of the Consistory, and he has membership with the Mystic Shrine and the Eastern Star. He also belongs to North Light Lodge, No. 193, K. P., in which he has filled all of the offices, to the Ivanhoe Masonic Club, the Kansas City Club, the Hill Crest Club and the Triangle Club, while his religious faith is indicated in his connection with the Second Church of Christ Scientist. The Edward White Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, named in honor of Edward White of Spanish-American war fame and situated at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has named its bugle and drum corps the F. Warner Karling Drum and Bugle Corps.
Colonel Karling was united in marriage to Miss Anna Graham Kelly, who was born in Ellsworth, Kansas, a daughter of Ora and Agnes (Greer) Kelly, the former a native of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the latter of Chester, Pennsylvania. Re- moving to Kansas, Mr. Kelly engaged in farming near Ellsworth in an early day and later took up his abode in Kansas City, where he became a representative of Bradstreet. Here his death occurred in 1886. His daughter, Mrs. Karling, was very active in war work, being president of the Women's Auxiliary, and is now president of the auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Colonel Karling has always been very active as a supporter of republican prin- ciples but has never been an office seeker. He feels that he can best serve the interests of his country in other connections and there is no man who is more stanchly a champion of Kansas City's upbuilding and her welfare than he. His strong purpose and his qualities of leadership have made him an influential factor in connection with public welfare and progress and he heads every movement to advance his community along patriotic lines. The Freemason, in a long article concerning him, said: "He can do more big things, cover a larger territory and do things with a greater degree of pleasure and less worry than most any man we know of. Always gallant, courteous, generous, broad-minded and public spirited wherever you meet him, whether in the store, in the lodge, in the soldier's camp or on a vacation trip, truly Mr. Karling is more than an ordinary man."
OLIVER ABEL.
Oliver Abel, an optometrist of splendid scientific attainment and broad practical experience, practicing his profession in St. Louis, was born July 12, 1873, in Eliza- bethtown, Essex county, New York. He is the son of Oliver Abel, Sr., who was also born in Elizabethtown, and passed away in 1891. The grandfather was like- wise named Oliver Abel, and was a native of Barre, Vermont, where the Abel family had settled prior to the Revolutionary war, coming to the new world from England. Oliver Abel, the father, was united in marriage to Mary E. Adams, who was born in Plattsburg, New York, and was a daughter of Elisha Adams of that place. Her
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maternal grandfather was Major Rufus Sanford, who served under Washington in the Revolutionary war, and her brother was Major Henry J. Adams, who served with the Union forces during the Civil war and was distinguished for bravery at Fort Sumter and awarded the congressional medal of honor. This branch of the Adams family easily traces its origin to the same English ancestors from whom were descended two of the presidents of the United States. Oliver Abel, Sr., was a lawyer by profession and became one of the founders of the republican party. He was a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, whom he frequently visited in the White House, and he was also a personal friend of James G. Blaine and Governor Cornell. In fact he was acquainted with many distinguished men of national fame. His father was the partner of Judge Hand of the federal judiciary, whose son is Judge Augustus Hand of the present federal court, who rendered one of the noteworthy decisions concerning the constitutionality of the prohibition law.
Oliver Abel pursued his education in the public schools of his native city until graduated from the high school of Elizabethtown in 1888. He afterward spent two years in the Albany (N. Y.), Preparatory school, and at a later period entered the Albany Medical College. He subsequently settled in Denver, where for three years he was employed as assistant by the Geneva Optical Company. From 1893 until 1895 he was at Buffalo, New York, with the Fox Optical Company and then came to St. Louis. Here he was identified with Aloes until 1902, when he established business on his own account, at his present location, in the Carlton building. His business has prospered and he is not only engaged in fitting glasses, but also in the manufacture of them and he likewise treats and operates upon the eyes. His ability and scientific skill have gained him a most liberal patronage and a well deserved reputation.
On the 10th of June, 1898, Mr. Abel was married to Miss Esther Frances Morall, and to them were born two children: Oliver, Jr., who was born in 1900; and Ralph Morall, born in 1912. The former was a sergeant of Company A, in . the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and is now studying medicine in Washington University. Mrs. Abel is the daughter of Jacob C. Morall, of St. Louis, secretary of the Rosenthal-Sloan Milling Company. The Moralls came to this city from Con- necticut where they had lived for many years and the ancestry of the family is traced back to England.
Mr. Abel gives his political endorsement to the republican party. He is a member of the Episcopal church and belongs to the Missouri Athletic Association, the University City Masons Lodge, the Red Cross Lodge, K. P., the West End Council of the Royal League and Brotherhood of St. Andrew. He finds recreation in golf, baseball and general outdoor sports and athletics, but never allows these things to interfere with the faithful performance of his professional duties, which he dis- charges with a sense of conscientious obligation. Those who know him-and he has a wide acquaintance-recognize his loyalty to the high standards of manhood and citizenship and he enjoys the warm respect of those with whom he has come in contact.
GUSSIE VIRON KENTON.
Gussie Viron Kenton, city editor of the St. Louis Star, the major part of his life having been devoted to journalistic labors since his graduation from the University of Missouri, was born in Miles Point, Carroll county, Missouri, February 19, 1885. The father, William P. Kenton, now living at Lee's Summit, Missouri, is a farmer by occupation. He, too, was born in Carroll county, and is a son of John Kenton who came to Missouri from Ohio long prior to the Civil war, and who was a descendant of Simon Kenton, the famous Indian fighter. Simon Kenton was a close personal friend of Daniel Boone. The towns of Kenton, Ohio, and Kenton, Missouri, are both named in honor of this family, which is of English descent. William P. Kenton was united in marriage to Maria Belle Freeman, who is a daughter of James F. Freeman, one of the pioneers of Carroll county, who at an early day had extensive holdings of land and of slaves. The father, James F., Sr., also came from Ohio, and the Freemans are descended from the Dutch family of Van Rensselaers of New Amsterdam, now New York. James Freeman, father of Mrs. Kenton, served as a Union soldier in the Civil war.
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Gussie Viron Kenton pursued his early education in the country schools near his father's home, which he attended to the age of sixteen years and then became a mem- ber of the class of 1905 at the high school of Richmond, Missouri. Following his gradu- ation he taught country schools for a year in Ray county, and then entered the Uni- versity of Missouri in which he pursued an academic course and also studied in the school of journalism, winning his Bachelor of Science degree in 1910 from the depart- ment of journalism. He was in the second class to graduate from the department, and during his college days became a member of the Kappa Tau Alpha, an honorary fra- ternity. Following his graduation he made a tour of Missouri for the board of indus. trial commissioners in connection with other graduates of the school of journalism, writing up the interesting features of the state. Afterward the seven graduates of the class were employed by the St. Louis Star in obtaining information for a state almanac. This required about three months, after which Mr. Kenton was given a posi- tion as reporter on the St. Louis Star. He spent two months in that way at the end of which time he was promoted to assistant editor of the fast mail edition of the Star. After serving in that capacity for a year he was made telegraph editor, and later assistant Sunday editor and head of the copy desk. In fact he filled nearly every position on the paper prior to 1918 when he was promoted to city editor of the Star, and is today con- nected with the paper in that capacity.
On the 23d of November, 1911, Mr. Kenton was married to Miss Lillian Ortwerth, a daughter of Conrad Ortwerth, a cabinetmaker of St. Louis who died in 1912. He and his wife, Katheryn Kuhr, were born, reared and married in Germany and about 1884 settled in St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Kenton have become parents of a son, William Penn Kenton, born April 28, 1919. Mr. Kenton is a democrat in his political views. He has no club or fraternal relations, for his duties in the field of journalism practi- cally occupy all of his time. His professional course has been marked by steady progress that has brought him forward until he is now a prominent figure in journalistic circles in the middle Mississippi valley.
FRANK MESKER.
Frank Mesker, with a readiness to meet and a fixed purpose to overcome difficulty, entered the field of structural iron and sheet metal work and in that connection has won notable success where many others have met failure. His advancement has been due to his brother Bernard T. Mesker, and to his own industry and perseverance and to a calm, clear judgment which enables him properly to estimate the present and forecast the future. Born in Evansville, Indiana, on the 8th of January, 1861, he is a son of John B. and Elizabeth (Nurry) Mesker, both of whom were of Holland descent. In fact the father was born in Holland and with a sister came from that coun- try to America in the early '30s when ten years of age, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. While there residing he engaged in the hardware and metal business and also operated a trading boat between Cincinnati and New Orleans. He afterward removed to Evans- ville, Indiana, where he continued in the same line of business and he erected the first big brick business building in Evansville. There he passed away in 1906. His wife, a native of Cincinnati, was a woman beloved by all who knew her because of her noble qualities as wife, mother and friend.
In his youthful days Frank Mesker attended a private school in Evansville, Indiana, and afterward continued his studies in a commercial college of that city, from which he was graduated in 1876. He came to St. Louis in 1877 and started in business in 1879 with his brother, Bernard T., in a small way in structural iron and sheet metal work at Nos. 1117, 1119 and 1121 Olive street. He had gained some practical knowledge of the business during his boyhood days in connection with his father's business inter- ests. Close application, indefatigable enterprise and thorough reliability characterized the firm of Mesker Brothers from the beginning and their increasing patronage later necessitated their removal to their present location at Sixth, Poplar and Seventh streets, where their business has further developed until it has become one of the largest of the kind in the country. Much of their work of late years has been for the United States government and during the World war they received contracts for ranges and bread bakers which enabled the government to feed six million men per day. Their work In this connection was of the greatest possible value to the cause of the allies.
FRANK MESKER
Vol. V-3
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Their products today go into every state in the Union and they also make large ship- ments to Canada and to Honolulu. Aside from the business of the firm Frank Mesker is vice president and treasurer of the Mesker Brothers Realty & Investment Company. He is uniformly courteous and fair in all of his business relations and his business integrity stands as an unquestioned fact in his career. He possesses initiative and inventive genius along mechanical lines in connection with his manufacturing inter- ests and he has that quality and faculty much prized in the business world.
In 1903, in St. Louis, Mr. Mesker was married to Miss Pauline Gehner, daughter of the late August Gehner, one of the prominent bankers and real estate dealers of this city who was born in Hanover, Germany, September 18, 1846, a son of Conrad and Mary (Hehman) Gehner. He attended school in his native land and also the German Institute of St. Louis from the time of his arrival in this city in 1859 until 1862, when he joined the Union army as a member of Company L, First Missouri Light Artillery, serving until mustered out in July, 1865. He was then a draughtsman in the office of the surveyor general at St. Louis until 1868 and through the succeeding three years was a clerk in an abstract office. In 1871 he opened an abstract office on his own account and conducted it until it was absorbed by the Guaranty Title & Trust Company, of which he was president until November, 1904. He then resigned and organized the Gehner Realty & Investment Company, of which he became president, conducting a general real estate and financial business. He was also president of the German Ameri- can Bank, became the third vice president of the Planters Hotel Company and a director of the Guaranty Title & Trust Company and the German Fire Insurance Company. He proudly wears the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of Frank P. Blair Post, No. 1, G. A. R. His daughter Pauline became the wife of Frank Mesker and to them have been born two children, Francis A. and John B. G.
Mr. Mesker is a member of the United States Chamber of Commerce, St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, St. Louis Club, Sunset Hill Country Club, the Academy of Science of St. Louis, St. Louis Art League, Citizens Industrial League, Missouri His- torical Society, St. Louis Mercantile Library Association and Building Industries Asso- ciation. Mr. and Mrs. Mesker have traveled extensively, visiting many parts of the world, including Russia, Hawaii, the Samoan Islands, New Zealand, Australia, British and Dutch New Guinea, the Philippine Islands, and China and Japan. His social life is distinctly domestic. An honorable gentleman of most excellent and cheerful temperament, he never sought notoriety nor prominence and accepted no public office nor trust but he always had the welfare of the city at heart.
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FRANK EDGAR KAUFFMAN.
Frank Edgar Kauffman, president of the Bernet, Craft & Kauffman Milling Company of St. Louis, is one of the progressive and substantial citizens Ohio has furnished to Missouri, his birth having occurred in the former state April 6, 1852. His father, Jacob Kauffman, who died in 1916, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1823, and when eight years of age was taken by his parents to Dayton. In his youthful days he was reared upon a farm and after- ward taught a country school in which he had formerly been a pupil. In 1855 he removed to Iowa and was engaged in horticultural pursuits in Mt. Pleasant for about four years, after which he began farming in that community. He raised a company for service in the Civil war, but was rejected because of weakness in his ankle which prevented him from walking freely. He was a citizen of worth in his community, serving for about fifteen years as supervisor of Henry county, Iowa, and for two terms in the Iowa legislature from 1875 until 1879. While R. B. Hayes was president of the United States Mr. Kauffman was recommended by General Fisk as Indian agent and after his appointment to the position was sta- tioned at Fort Berthold, North Dakota, where he had supervision of nearly three thousand Indians and at the end of his term he was so popular and beloved by his wards that the Indians besought""the Great White Father" in Washington to let him remain there. But the political map had changed and a democrat was appointed by President Cleveland to succeed him. He was the first agent, however, to give the Indians really practical instruction in farming and his influence has not yet died out. He was not only a capable farmer but was very conscientious in all that he
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did. After leaving the agency he went to Illinois, where he became superintendent of the Kauffman Milling Company, of which his brother and Frank Edgar Kauff- man were the owners. There he remained until 1891 when he removed to St. Louis and retired from business. He was a lifelong and consistent member of the Methodist church and during his younger years was very active in Masonry.
It has been said that to understand thoroughly any individual one must know something about his ancestry, and the Kauffmans came of an Alsatian line of Huguenots. After living through the religious prosecutions which had their climax in the great massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1681, the Kauffmans were forced, with many others, to seek refuge in Switzerland. They had suffered terribly from confiscation measures and assassination. A colony was formed in Switzerland to settle on the Canestoga river in Pennsylvania. The Kauffmans joined this colony and for the first time in one hundred and fifty years the family rested where it could safely enjoy its religious beliefs. In 1716, Isaac Kauffman is known to have been living where Lancaster, Pennsylvania, now stands. He became a naturalized English subject in 1717. In 1718 he married Ann Neff, who belonged to the same family as the wife of Jacoh Kauffman. In 1729 General Gordon, in speaking of the Kauffmans and the Neffs said, "It appears to me that they have behaved them- selves well, and have generally so good a character for honesty and industry as to deserve the esteem of this government and some mark of regard." The ancestral line can be traced with absolute accuracy from this Isaac Kauffman of Lancaster.
The mother of Frank Edgar Kauffman hore the maiden name of Sarah Neff and was a daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Daniels) Neff, the latter a daughter of Thomas Daniels, who served through the Revolutionary war under the immediate command of General Washington and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. Mr. Daniels' father served under General Wolfe at Quebec and participated in the battle of the Plains of Abraham. Sarah Neff was born in 1828 and died in 1915.
The early education of Frank Edgar Kauffman was obtained in the public schools of Henry county, Iowa, and later he attended the Iowa Wesleyan University, becoming a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity during his college days. He taught school in Iowa and Illinois for two years before attaining his majority and in 1873 hecame a resident of St. Louis where he entered the employ of the milling firm of E. O. Stanard & Company, the senior member being a relative and at one time lieutenant governor of Missouri, while for two terms he represented his dls- trict in congress. After a year and a half in the office Mr. Kauffman was sent on the road as traveling salesman and on his trips covered nearly the entire country. He was stationed at New York and was a member of the New York Produce Ex- change from 1879 until 1884. In the latter year he became associated with his uncle, John W. Kauffman, a partner of Mr. Stanard's, in organizing the Kauffman Milling Company with offices in St. Louis, and mills in this city and in Illinois. He was vice president of the company until 1896 and was president until 1902, when the corporation joined with the firm of Bernet & Craft, thus incorporating the Bernet, Craft & Kauffman Milling Company, with a capital stock of four hun- dred thousand dollars and through the intervening period Mr. Kauffman has been president of the company, which today controls one of the important milling inter- ests of the state. The business has been developed to large proportions and has long since become a most remunerative enterprise.
On the 15th of October, 1879, Mr. Kauffman was married to Miss Kate Garrett- son, a daughter of G. A. Garrettson, a banker of Muscatine, Iowa. She died in 1891 leaving a daughter, Myrle, who is the wife of Daniel A. Hill, the president of the Western Advertising Company of St. Louis, and a resident of Webster Groves. On the 12th of January, 1899, Mr. Kauffman married Nelle Dunham, a daughter of John S. Dunham, an old citizen of St. Louis, who was a lineal descendant of Sir John Dunham of Dunham on the Trent, England, who joined the Dissenters and left England on the Mayflower under an assumed name to escape the importunities of his parents. The Dunhams trace their ancestry back to the Pilgrims through several different lines. Two children have been born of the second marriage of Mr. Kauffman: Frank Edgar, who was born in 1900, attended the Hill school in Pennsylvania, was a student at Smith Academy of St. Louis and later at the Jackson Academy of St. Louis. When America entered the World war he enlisted in the navy and was in the Ensign School at Chicago and New York, but was not called upon for active sea service. He is now in business with his father. The daughter,
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Emily Dunham, was a student at Mary Institute, and after putting aside her text- books traveled with her mother in the Orient in 1920.
Mr. Kauffman was at one time a member of Company A of the Missouri National Guard, a St. Louis organization. During the war period Mr. and Mrs. Kauffman were extremely active in promoting entertainment for the soldiers. Mrs. Kauffman gave practically all of her time to the cause. She was chairman for St. Louis county in the Y. M. C. A. drive. Mr. Kauffman was chairman of the Armenian and Syrian Relief Society of St. Louis for two years. This society raised four hundred thousand dollars.
In politics Mr. Kauffman is a republican and his religious faith is indicated in his membership in the Grace Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally he is a member of the Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M .; St. Louis Chapter, R. A. M .; St. Aldermar Commandery, K. T .; and the Missouri Consistory, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. In 1884 he joined the Merchants Exchange of St. Louis, of which he has served as vice president and director for three years. He was chairman of the committee having in charge the mixed flour law. He first called a meeting of millers and informed them as to the adulteration that was going on in the flour business and they looked to him to see that a proper law was passed. He drew up the law which was passed by congress and is still on the statute books of the country. To him more than to any one else is due the credit for the passage of this law. His life has ever been characterized by high principles and worthy motives, and his entire life has been in accordance with the record of an honorable ancestry.
FREEMAN D. PHILLIPS.
Freeman D. Phillips, president of the Central Telephone & Electric Company of St. Louis, was born August 6, 1872, in Lawton, Michigan, a son of Solomon Phillips, who was also a native of Michigan and represented one of the pioneer families of that state of English descent. He became a successful merchant of Lawton, where he resided throughout his entire life, passing away in 1879 at the age of forty-five. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rose Smith, was born in Michigan and was a representative of the Van Antwerp family, an old and promi- nent one of Michigan and of Dutch lineage. Mrs. Phillips passed away in 1886 at the age of forty-seven years. By her marriage she had hecome the mother of two sons and three daughters.
Freeman D. Phillips, the fourth in order of birth, was educated in the public schools of Lawton and of Paw Paw, Michigan, and when eighteen years of age left home, going to Chicago where he was employed by the firm of R. Chester Frost & Company, wholesale jewelers. He remained in that business for four years and then entered the employ of the Electrical Appliance Company of Chicago, and while thus engaged entered upon the private study of electrical engineering. He remained with the Appliance Company until 1906, working in various departments and becoming very proficient. He then removed to St. Louis where he accepted the position of sales manager for the Wesco Supply Company, with which he remained until May, 1916. He then purchased an interest in the Central Telephone & Electric Company of which he was made vice president and sales manager and in 1918 was elected to the presidency of a company that today controls one of the leading business enter- prises of the kind in St. Louis. He is well known in business circles, belonging to the St. Louis Electrical Board of Trade and is a member of its executive committee, also a member of the Sales Managers Bureau and is serving on the executive com- mittee of the latter.
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