USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 1 > Part 10
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Denry Clarkson Scott
he was a member. All who knew him felt that a good man had been called to his reward. He held with Abraham Lincoln that "there is something better than making a living-making a life," and his contribution to the world's work was indeed valuable along the lines of cultural and moral progress. Well descended and well bred the innate refinement of his nature was opposed to anything gross or common and the high ideals which he cherished were trans- mitted as a priceless legacy to his family.
Edward Wohl Saunders
Edward Watts Saunders, M.D.
R. EDWARD WATTS SAUNDERS, who for forty-three years D has engaged in the practice of medicine in St. Louis and who is now professor emeritus of pediatrics and clinical obstetries in the nedical department of Washington University, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, on the 15th of October, 1854, a son of Robert C. and Caryetta (Davis) Saunders. His father was a Civil war veteran, serving as captain of Company A of the Eleventh Virginia Infantry of the Confederate army and winning promotion to the rank of major. In the maternal line was Captain Eugene Davis under General J. E. B. Stuart. He raised a company of cavalry for service with the Confederate forces, was captured and imprisoned at Elmira, New York. An unele, Richard T. Davis, was also a chaplain in the army. The ancestry of the Saunders family in America dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century, when settlement was made at Jamestown by one of the name. On the mother's side the ancestral line is traced back only through three generations. The grandfather Davis was rector of the University of Virginia and met a tragic death, being assassinated by a drunken student in 1840.
The early education of Dr. Saunders was obtained in private schools and the academie department of the University of Virginia. In preparation for his professional career he attended the medical department of the same university, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1875. He afterward took post-graduate work in the Royal University of Vienna, and in 1878 he came to St. Louis, where he opened an office, and through the intervening period has continuously engaged in practice. He has largely specialized in pediatries and obstetrics and has gained wide recognition for his skill along those lines. For an extended period he was one of the instructors in the medical department of Washington University, which has now made him professor emeritus of pediatrics and clinical obstetries. He is serving on the medical staff of the Bethesda Hospital, and also of the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium and is the president of the Bethesda Association. He likewise belongs to the American Pediatric Society, the American Medical Association, the St. Louis Medical Society and the St. Louis Pediatrie Society. He is also a member of the American Immunologic Society and fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Saunders is a Presbyterian in his religious faith, and is a member of the University Club. During the World war Dr. Saunders made application for service and was placed on the Volunteer Medical Corps, doing duty in connection with secret service work for the government. He has a very wide acquaintance in St. Louis, where he has so long made his home, and throughout the entire period he has enjoyed the fullest respect and confidence not only of the general publie but of his colleagues and contemporaries because of his elose conformity to the highest standards and ethics of the profession.
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Chant Haauch
Charles Francis Daanel
C HARLES FRANCIS HAANEL, writer on philosophical sub- jeets, was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 22, 1866, a son of Hugo P. and Emeline C. (Fox) Haanel, who removed with him to St. Louis when he was in early childhood. He attended the high school of this eity and started upon his business career as a clerk with the St. Louis Stamping Company, for which he worked for a period of fifteen years. At that time the vicinity of Tehuantepec, Mexico, was reputed as being especially adapted to the growth of sugar and coffee. He succeeded in convincing a number of capitalists of the feasibility of taking up land in that section of the country and working a plantation. The land was purchased and the company organized to engage in the raising of sugar and coffee. Of this company he was made president. The plantation was successful from the beginning and soon became an enterprise of considerable financial worth. This was organized in 1898 and in 1905 Mr. Haanel organized the Continental Commercial Company, which was consolidated with the other company and also absorbed six additional companies. It operated under the name of the Continental Commercial Company with Mr. Haanel as president but since the continued unrest in Mexico, like all other organizations there, has been inactive and will remain so until a stable govern- ment is put in power. Mr. Haanel has by no means confined his efforts to these lines, however, but has extended his labors to other enterprises with which he is associated in a prominent capacity. He was one of the organizers of the Saera- mento Valley Improvement Company and for some time its president. He was likewise president of the Mexico Gold & Silver Mining Company, a company of some importance in developing the rich mineral resources of the southern republie.
Mr. Haanel is now devoting his time largely to scientific and philosophical writing and is the founder of The Master Key System of Philosophy. His researches and investigations have been carried on broadly and he has evolved from the experiences of the activities of the ages, the system of philosophy which he terms The Master Key, looking at life with broad vision and high purpose. He has in his possession many most interesting letters bearing testi- mony to the worth of his system of philosophy as a factor toward happiness, success and contentment in life. One writing to him, after losing two hundred thousand dollars as the result of heavy real estate investments, said: "I felt that nothing could make life worth living again; was filled with regrets, remorse, fear, and everything but joy, courage and hope. To make a long story short, after reading, studying and appropriating the practical, self-evident statements and logieal, seientifie plan of life as set forth in The Master Key, everything is changed and I have recovered my health completely, my courage as well, and I
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am again on the road to financial independence with the great joy in sight of repaying every obligation, or I should say, of paying them. The scientific facts as set forth are real, the logie is perfect. It is as good as, yes, better in some respects than a college course so far as education is concerned, aside from giving the absolute knowledge which makes health and true happiness possible." Many letters of similar purport, with changes only as to detail, environment and condition, has Mr. Haanel received and today The Master Key System has thousands of students in every country on the globe.
In 1885 Mr. Haanel was united in marriage to Miss Esther M. Smith. Sixteen years later he was left a widower with one son and two daughters, and in July, 1908, he was married to Miss Margaret Nicholson of St. Louis, a daughter of W. A. Nicholson. They have two children, Beverly and Charles F., Jr. While Mr. Haanel is a republican, his pressing business interests have given him no time to take an active part in polities beyond that of casting his vote and using his influence for the election of the candidates of the party in whose principles he firmly believes. He is a member of Keystone Lodge, a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner.
E. Chancellor MLD,
Custathius Chancellor, A.D.
R. EUSTATHIUS CHANCELLOR is a widely known repre- D sentative of the medical profession who since 1880, or for a period of forty years, has practiced in St. Louis. His profes- sional and scientific attainments and his genial nature have called him to leadership in various connections and there are few men outside of public life who have a wider acquaintance or more friends than has Dr. Chancellor. While he comes from English ancestry the family has long been represented on this side of the Atlantic and his birth occurred August 29, 1854, in Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania county, Virginia, his parents being Dr. J. Edgar and D. Josephine Chancellor who were representatives of a number of the oldest and most distinguished families of Virginia. He began his education in private schools of his native county and afterward pursued his studies at Charlottesville, Virginia, continuing his classical education until 1870. He then initiated his business career when in October of that year he visited Columbus, Georgia, and accepted a position as assistant cashier and bookkeeper in a railway office. Ill health forced him to resign his position, however, a year later. He was not content with the educa- tional opportunities which he had already enjoyed and in October, 1871, he returned to the University of Virginia where he entered upon a course in civil engineering as a member of the junior class and at the close of the session received certificates of proficiency in several departments. He remained a student in the State University through the succeeding two years, devoting his attention to classical courses and higher mathematics and then entered upon the study of medicine in the fall of 1874. After two years of thorough work he graduated with honors on the 29th of June, 1876, and his professional degree was conferred upon him by the medical department of the University of Virginia. He further promoted his knowledge of the science of medicine by attending the clinics of the University of Pennsylvania for several weeks, at the end of which time he entered upon educational work in the line of his chosen profession, being ap- pointed prosector in the chair of anatomy in the School of Medicine of the University of Maryland and also was made clinical assistant in the hospital. He likewise continued his studies in the Maryland University and a second diploma was conferred upon him in 1877 with a certificate of proficiency from the University Hospital. A further recognition of the excellent work which he had done came in his appointment as assistant resident physician at the Univer- sity Hospital in the spring of 1878. He served in that capacity for a year and during much of the time acted as chief physician but resigned in March, 1879. He then returned to the University of Virginia and about the same time entered into partnership with his father, Dr. J. Elgar Chancellor, for the practice of medicine and surgery and became a member of the Medical Society of Virginia.
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Eustathius Chancellor, M.D.
Throughout his professional career he has been a well known contributor to leading medical journals of the country, beginning his writing soon after leaving college.
Attracted by the opportunities of the growing west Dr. Chancellor eame to St. Louis July 9, 1880, and was not long in becoming firmly established in an extensive and lucrative practice. He has always been a elose student of his profession, examining with thoroughness every theory and idea that has to do with the laws of health and the abolishment of disease. He has ever kept in touch with the latest scientific researches and discoveries and his opinions are based upon long experience, keen sagacity and an almost innate perception as to the value of a course to be pursued.
Dr. Chancellor's services as medical examiner for many fraternal, insurance and other organizations have brought him a most extensive acquaintanee and his genial qualities have gained for him the friendship of nearly all with whom he has come in contaet. He has served as medical examiner for twenty of the leading fraternal organizations of St. Louis and through this avenue he became an active representative of Masonry, taking the degrees of the lodge, the eom- mandery, the Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to Elks Lodge No. 9, and he became one of the active members of the Knights of Pythias and in 1886 was elected supreme medical director of the Legion of Honor, filling the position most efficiently and satisfactorily for three years or until he declined a reeleetion in 1889. Subsequently he was appointed supervising medical examiner of the Royal Arcanum of Missouri. It has been said of him: "No man has done more than he to advance the high standard of life insurance examination and characterize this field as a distinct specialty. He has the good fortune to be medical examiner of many of the best life and accident insurance companies in the land and represents several traveling men's mutual accident and health associations."
In the educational field Dr. Chancellor has won distinction. In 1885 he became one of the founders of the Beaumont Hospital Medical College, and filled the chair of cutaneous and venereal diseases for five years, when he resigned on account of his growing private practice. Throughout his professional career he has continued to write largely for the leading medical journals and is regarded as a elear, forceful and impressive lecturer. His utterances in the Kansas City, Missouri State and American Medical Associations are always listened to with eagerness, the profession recognizing that his opinions are well worth while. He had been a resident of St. Louis for but four years when in 1884 the St. Louis University conferred upon him the honorary Master of Arts degree. Among his many valuable contributions to medical literature are the following: Re- searches Upon the Treatment of Delirium Tremens, 1881; Successful Operations for the Deformity of Burnt Wrist, 1881; Treatment of Diabetes Insipidus, 1883; Gonorrheal Articular Rheumatism, 1883; Syphillis in Men, 1884; Causes of Social Depravity and a Remedy, 1885; Woman in her Social Sphere, 1885; Marriage Philosophy, 1886.
There is a most interesting military chapter in the life record of Dr. Chan- cellor, who in 1883 became a private of Company H, First Regiment of the Missouri National Guard. In 1886 he was advaneed to the rank of captain of the medieal department of the First Regiment and in 1891 was promoted to the
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Custathius Chancellor, B.D.
rank of lieutenant colonel as medical director of the First Brigade of the Missouri National Guard. In the same year he was one of the organizers and coworkers with Colonel Nicholas Senn and became a charter member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He was chosen secretary and editor of the organization and continued to serve in the dual capacity until 1898. It was through his efforts that the first annual meeting of the Association of Military Surgeons was held in St. Louis in 1892 and on that occasion he was chairman of the entertainment committee. A recognition of the value of his contribution to the work of the National Guard is indicated in the fact that in 1893 he was made an honorary member of the Illinois organization. In IS95 he became a member of the Medico-Legal Society of New York. For an extended period Dr. Chan- cellor has been a member of the St. Louis Medical Society and in the decade of the '80s served for several years as corresponding secretary thereof. It was also in that decade that he was chosen representative from the St. Louis Medical Society to the International Medical Congress, held in Washington, D. C. In November, 1896, he was made the delegate from the St. Louis Medical Society to the Pan American Medical Congress which met in the city of Mexico, being the only delegate from this part of the United States and not only was he accorded the honors due his position as a delegate to the convention but was also enter- tained by President Diaz when in that republic. In 1896 he spent almost a year visiting leading clinies in Europe and in that year was official delegate to the British Medical Association at London from the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. In 1902 he was elected vice president of the American Congress of Tuberculosis and in 1903 was made a member of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association. In 1904 he served as chairman of the finance committee for the fourteenth annual meeting of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, held at St. Louis during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. On the 9th of November, 19IS, he received a commission in the United States Volunteer Medical Service Corps, No. 9895. It would be almost impossible to say which branch of his professional service has brought to him greatest prominence. Of him it has been written: "Personally he is one of the most genial of men, possessed of a vast amount of personal magnetism, and as a gentleman, civilian-soldier and a physician, his word is as good as his bond."
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Jane Redd Gentry Shelton Mr, Theodore Shelton.
Ars. Theodore Shelton
RS. JANE REDD GENTRY SHELTON, wife of Theodore M Shelton, is one of the best known women of Missouri and no record of the state would be complete without extended reference to her, not alone by reason of the fact that she is a representative of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the state and comes of a notably prominent an- cestral line, but also by reason of her personal contribution of valuable service to many of the important activities which tend to the uplift of the individual and the advancement of the community at large.
She was born May 28, 1848, at Oak Dale, the country seat of the Gentry family, about three miles northwest of Sedalia, Missouri, her parents being Judge and Mrs. William Gentry, of Pettis county. She comes of a family distinctively American in both its lineal and collateral lines. Her great-grand- father, Richard Gentry, married Jane Harris, a granddaughter of Major Robert Harris, who was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses from 1730 until 1742. Richard Gentry was a valiant soldier in the Revolutionary war and was present when Cornwallis surrendered his forces at Yorktown. Mrs. Shelton, indeed, has reason to be proud of her ancestral history, for she is a direct descend- ant of John Crawford of Scotland, who landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1643, and obtained several grants of land, upon one of which he settled. Her great- grandfather, David Thomson, was a major of the War of 1812 and with the rank of general commanded the Second Battalion of Kentucky Volunteers at the battle of the Thames. The wife of General Thomson was Elizabeth Sugger, daughter of John Suggett and Mildred Davis, and it is a matter of record ( Filson Club Publication Vol. 12,p.50) that they were among those who made memorable the defense of Bryant Station, Kentucky, August 16, 1782, when it was learned that the Indians and British were preparing for an attack on Bryant Springs, near Lexington, Kentucky. It was found the fort was inadequately supplied with water and the women and children went bravely forth with their pails (as was their custom), reasoning that if the Indians thought the small garrison had no knowledge of their proximity, they would await nightfall for their attack, a surmise that proved to be true. The women and children therefore went forth with their buckets, knowing they were under the eyes of savages, and Mrs. Mildred (Davis) Suggett and her husband's sister, Jemima Suggett Johnson, led the party to the spring, returning unmolested with the water for the siege. In the attack which followed the Indians shot flaming arrows into the fort and one of them fell into the cradle of the infant son of Jemima Suggett Johnson, Richard Mentor Johnson, who lived to become the vice president of the United States. A monument erected on the site of MeClelland's Fort at Georgetown, Kentucky, to General McClelland and his men, and to the Revolutionary
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@rs. Theobore Shelton
soldiers who were buried in Seott county, by the Big Springs Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the summer of 1920, contains among the many names those of but two women, the great-great-grandmother of Mrs. Shelton, Mildred Davis Suggett, and Jemima Suggett Johnson, her great-great- aunt. Mrs. Shelton was among the many Suggett descendants who were present at the unveiling of this monument. By reason of their bravery in leading the procession for water they were elassed with the soldiers who successfully defended the fort.
William Gentry, the father of Mrs. Theodore Shelton, born April 14, 1818, at Old Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, was among the most enterprising farm- ers and sueeessful stoek breeders in Missouri, owning and cultivating six thousand aeres 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 ad- joining counties. The premiums were solid silver, made by Jaecard & Company of St. Louis (coin), his five daughters each receiving among her wedding gifts a half dozen of these silver water eups, besides pitchers, ladles, spoons, ete. 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 2:001/2. He was unquestionably the greatest horse of his day and generation. He was born January 1, 1SSS, 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 ap- pointed major of the Fortieth Regiment of enrolled militia by Governor Gamble, so serving until the regiment was mustered out. Subsequently he served with the same rank in the Fifth Regiment of provisional militia until the elose 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 slave- holders, he opposed secession and remained loyal to the flag. In 1875 he was appointed by Governor Hardin as one of the Missouri state managers for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1879 Governor John S. Phelps ap- pointed him a delegate to a convention ealled in New York to form a National Agricultural Society. He was appointed 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 preference being strong for the active pursuits of farming and other business enterprises. He was at one
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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 Wash- ington at Valley Forge. Ann was born on her father's estate of over one thousand acres near Frankfort, Kentucky, July 23, 1824, and removed 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 refine- ment, gifted with every domestic virtue, a descendant of the chivalry of Vir- ginia. She was noted for her tender sympathy and generosity. Sick soldiers of the Civil war were nursed baek 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 de- votion 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.
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