USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 1 > Part 17
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John R. Caulk, M.D.
R. JOHN R. CAULK, urological surgeon of St. Louis, was born D at MeDaniel, Talbot county, Maryland, October 30, 1882, a son of the late Frank E. and Sarah D. (Wrightson) Caulk. The father was a representative of a prominent Maryland family of Scotch and English lineage and engaged in business as a wholesale tobacconist, winning substantial success. Ho died in 1894 at the age of forty-one years, while his wife passed away in 1912 at the age of fifty-two. She was also a representative of one of the old Maryland families of English lineage founded in the new world prior to the Revolutionary war. By her marriage she became the mother of four children, one of whom, a daughter, died in childhood.
Dr. Caulk, the eldest of the family, was educated in the primary and high schools of Easton, Talbot county, Maryland, and in St. John's College at Annap- olis, a military school, where in his senior year he was commanding officer, holding the rank of major of the battalion. There he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1901, while in 1912 his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. His medical education was obtained in the Johns Hopkins University, from which he was graduated in 1906, subsequent to which time he served for eighteen months as an interne in the Union Protestant infirm- ary. He acted as assistant resident surgeon in the same institution under Dr. John M. T. Finney and from 1907 until the middle of 1910 was assistant resident surgeon and resident urological surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, with which he was thus connected for three and a half years.
Dr. Caulk came to St. Louis in June, 1910, and here entered upon private practice, during which time he has been chief of staff of the genito-urinary clinic at the Washington University, also assistant surgeon of the Barnes Hospital, urologist at the St. Louis Children's Hospital and also urologist at St. Luke's Hospital. He is associate editor on surgery, gynecology and obstetrics and has contributed many articles to leading medical journals. Ile is likewise corre- sponding editor of the American Journal on Syphilis and associate editor of the American Journal of Urology. With the various leading scientifie societies having to do with his profession he is associated in membership relations, these including the American Urologieal Society, American Association of Genito-Urinary Sur- geons, American Society of Clinical Genito Surgery, the American College of Surgeons, the Southern Medical Association, being chairman of its surgical see- tion and the International Association of Urology. He is a member of the St. Louis Medical, Missouri State and American Medical Associations, also of the St. Louis Association of Surgeons and the St. Louis Surgical Society, of which he has been president. During the World war he served on the medical advisory
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board and taught urology to medical officers in the Army School of Urology at St. Louis for a period of eight months.
At Baltimore, Maryland, on the 1st of June, 1910, Dr. Caulk was married to Miss Bessie Jenifer Harrison, a daughter of Harry Tucker and Mary (Jenifer) Harrison, the former being an own cousin of Benjamin Harrison and a direct descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. and Mrs. Caulk have become parents of two children: John R., born February 12, 1913, in St. Louis; and Marian Elizabeth, born September 30, 1914.
Dr. Caulk turns to horseback riding, golf, motoring and outdoor sports for recreation and diversion, thus obtaining relief from the arduous duties of the profession. His political endorsement is given to the democratic party and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. He belongs to the Phi Beta Phi, a medical fraternity, Beta Theta Phi, a college fraternity, and to the St. Louis, University and Bellerive Clubs, having wide acquaintance in these organiza- tions, his social position equaling his professional prominence.
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Thomas Harper Cobbs
HOMAS HARPER COBBS, lawyer and senior member of the T firm of Cobbs & Logan, 1111-1116 Third National Bank build- ing, St. Louis, Missouri, was born August 26, 1868, on a farm in Fairview township, Lafayette county, about six miles southeast of Napoleon, Missouri. His father, Thomas T. Cobbs, was a native of Tennessee. His grandfather, Thomas Cobbs, was a native of Virginia and a descendant of English- Welsh parents. Ilis grandfather was among the pioneer settlers of Lafayette county, having come to that county in 1830, and having built the first gristmill in that section. After his grandfather's death, his father operated the old water power gristmill until it beeame out of date and then devoted himself to farming until 1890, when he retired and moved to Marshall, Missouri, where he died in 1913. His mother, Catherine Harper Cobbs, was a native of Woodford county, Kentucky, and a member of the IIarper family, one of the best known families in the "blue grass" region. They were breeders of fine horses and were the owners of "Longfellow" and "Tenbroek," two of the most famous race horses of their day. His mother died at Marshall, Missouri, in 1910. He has one brother, William S. Cobbs, of Norborne, Missouri, and one sister, Mrs. Ethel Hyland, of Marshall, Missouri, now living and has lost two sisters, Mrs. Catherine C'hinn and Mrs. Sarah Drysdale.
Thomas Harper Cobbs was reared on the home farm and attended the Fair- view distriet school and the Pleasant Prairie Cumberland Presbyterian church until he reached the age of seventeen years. In the fall of 1885 he entered Odessa College at Odessa, Missouri. In January, 18SS, he left Odessa College tempo- rarily and entered Warrensburg State Normal School, taking the teachers' train- ing course, from which he graduated the following June, obtaining a state teach- er's certificate. He taught a country school in the Wolfenbarger district, south- east of Odessa, in the fall of 188S, and re-entered Odessa College in January, 1889, and graduated with his class in June, 1889, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Seience. After a trip to California in the summer of 1889, he became principal of the public schools at Blue Springs, Missouri, where he taught one term. In March, 1890, he joined his family in Marshall, Missouri, and entered Missouri Valley College, where he pursued his classical studies for about two years. In January, 1892, he was selected as principal of the Slater (Mo.) high school and in the fall of 1892 was elected superintendent of the public schools of Roodhouse, Illinois. While in charge of the Roodhouse schools he spent one summer in scientific investigation at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, and two summers at the University of Chicago. He resigned his position as superintendent of schools at Roodhouse in 1895 and entered the St. Louis Law School, a depart- ment of the Washington University. While taking his first year in law he also
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took a regular year of resident work in the Washington University and graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, with the class of 1896. In the summer of 1896 he read law with the firm of Boyd and Merrill in Marshall, Missouri, and in August, 1896, took the bar examination at Higginsville and was admitted to the bar of Missouri. In the fall of 1896 he entered Yale Law School at New Haven, Connecticut, and in June, 1897, graduated from that institution, receiving the degree LL.B. from Yale University. While at Yale he was elected president of the famous Yale-Kent Club, a debating society, and also won the Munson thesis prize for the best thesis written by the class of '97 in the Yale Law School. His thesis was on the subject, "Bills of Lading Given for Goods not in Fact Shipped," and was published in the Yale Law Journal in January and February, 1898, Volume VII, Nos. 4 and 5. After graduating from Yale Law School he began the active practice of the law, in the fall of 1897, with the firm of Flower, Smith and Musgrave, in Chicago, Illinois, where he continued until his physicians advised him to get away from the severe elimate near Lake Michi- gan.
With the beginning of the twentieth century, January 1, 1901, Mr. Cobbs returned to St. Louis and joined John E. Bishop in the organization of the law firm of Bishop & Cobbs. That firm engaged in the general practice of the law until its dissolution, October 1, 1918. Mr. Cobbs bought the assets and goodwill of his old firm and continued the practice of law alone until January 1, 1919, when he admitted Mr. George B. Logan into his office as a junior partner and formed the new firm of Cobbs & Logan. In his profession Mr. Cobbs has devoted himself exclusively to eivil practice and has handled many of the most important legal matters which have come up in St. Louis during recent years. He is conscientious and untiring in his work and is recognized as one of the most capable and successful lawyers at the St. Louis bar. He is a member of the St. Louis, the Missouri and the American Bar Associations and takes a keen interest in everything which affects his profession. Mr. Cobbs takes an active interest in all educational matters. He is a member of and counsel for the board of directors of Lindenwood Female College, St. Charles, Missouri, and a member of the alumni advisory board of Washington University. He belongs to the Sigma Nu college fraternity and is a member of the Yale Alumni Association and of the Washington University Alumni Association, of which latter association he has served as president.
While he is a democrat, Mr. Cobbs has never taken a very active part in polities. He reserves to himself the right to support the men and measures which he thinks are best, everything considered.
He takes an active interest in all eivie matters and is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and other eivie and business organizations. Mr. Cobbs has been very active in the movement to build in St. Louis a great zoo- logieal garden. More than ten years ago he suggested and helped to organize the Zoological Society of St. Louis, and has been a member of the board of directors of that society since its organization. He prepared the ordinance by which a part of Forest Park was set aside as a Zoological Park and also prepared the state statute which was afterwards enacted as a law and under which the city of St. Louis voted a mill tax for the support of the "Zoo."
In religion he is a Presbyterian and is an active member of the Kings High-
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way Presbyterian church and has been a ruling elder in that church for many years. He is a member of the board of trustees of the St. Louis Presbytery and of its church extension committee and devotes considerable time and effort to social service and religious work. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner, being a member of Tuscan Lodge, the Scottish Rite and Moolah Temple and in 1919 was honored by appointment as a K. C. C. H. He is an officer and takes an active part in the work of the Scottish Rite.
On August 30, 1898, Mr. Cobbs was married to Miss Lucie Mae Jones, of Carrollton, Illinois. Mrs. Cobbs is a member of one of the most prominent families in central Illinois, being the daughter of Mr. John Jones who has held public office in Greene county, Illinois, for many years. She is active in the club, church and social life of the city and devotes much time to philanthropic work. She is a member of the board of directors of the visiting nurse association of St. Louis. In 1909 and 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Cobbs built their own home at 6224 Waterman avenue, in "Parkview," one of St. Louis' most beautiful restricted private places. They have no children, having lost their only son in infancy in 1905. They are very fond of home life and their home is one of happiness for themselves, their relatives and their friends.
Mr. Cobbs is a member of the Missouri Athletic Association and Sunset Hill Country Club. He was one of the organizers and is a director of the Midland Valley Country Club. He takes some interest in golf and is fond of fishing (especially trout fishing) and of traveling. He is always frank, courteous, kindly and affable and those who know him personally have for him warm regard. He is a man of high ideals and definite purposes. His personal and professional conduct is exemplary. He seeks justice and right rather than victory and supports those interests which are intended to benefit and uplift humanity. He bears and deserves a splendid reputation as a thorough Christian gentleman and as a good lawyer.
Milton J. Hopkins, M.D.
T HE thinking man recognizes the fact that character and ability will come to the front anywhere, and especially in professional life are the honors and emoluments won only through indi- vidual effort and talent. A most ereditable position has been reached by Dr. Milton J. Hopkins, physician and surgeon of St. Louis, who was born in Blissfield, Michigan, November 29, 1859, his parents being Samuel and Susannah (Loar) Hopkins. The father, a native of West Virginia, was descended from an old Massachusetts family, the ancestral line being traced back directly to Rev. Samuel Hopkins, who was the great-grandfather of Dr. Hopkins of this review and who was a prominent Calvinist. The record indicates that for two hundred years the family has numbered among its representatives members of the ministry. Samuel Hopkins, father of Dr. Hopkins, became a farmer and carpenter and resided in Michigan to the time of his death, which occurred in 1902 when he was eighty- four years of age, for he was born in the year 1818. His wife was a native of Maryland and she, too, was descended from one of the old families of Massa- chusetts of English deseent. Her mother was among the very first white children born west of the Alleghany mountains. Both the father and mother of Dr. Hopkins were descended from Revolutionary war ancestors. Mrs. Hopkins, who was born April 22, 1819, died in 1908, at the age of eighty-nine years. She was the mother of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters, all of whom reached adult age.
Dr. Hopkins of this review, who was the youngest in the family, pursued a publie school education and also attended college at Blissfield, Michigan, and afterward pursued a literary and business course in Valparaiso University of Valparaiso, Indiana, completing his course there in 1884. He afterward beeame a student in the Missouri Medical College and won his professional degree in 1896, being graduated with honors. His education, however, was not continuous, for there was a period in which he worked along various lines before qualifying for a professional career. He was reared upon a farm to the age of nineteen years and then went to Bear Lake, Michigan, where he engaged in elerking in a general store from 1879 until 1881. He afterward served for three months as a brakeman and for one year as conductor and later as superintendent of the Bear Lake & Eastern Railroad, being thus engaged from 1852 until 1887, the road being owned by his brother. In the latter year Dr. Hopkins went south and assisted in rail- road survey work and in mining industries until 1892, when he determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work and became a student in the Missouri Medical College.
After his graduation he took up the active practice of his profession in St. Louis. He attended elinies for two years in the City Hospital and also was eon-
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Hilton 3. Hopkins, H.D.
nected as an interne with the St. John's and Missouri medical clinics for four years. He then entered upon private practice, in which he has continuously engaged and his ability in this connection has been widely recognized. He has also lectured on gynecology in the Physicians and Surgeons College for a period of five years and he was leeturer and a member of the staff of the Baptist Hospital for a period of ten years. He has taken post-graduate work on nervous diseases in leading colleges of the country and has pursued special studies on various branches of medicine, particularly on gynecology and diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He belongs to the St. Louis Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Association, and the American Medical Association and also to the Tri State Medical Society. He is a member of the alumni association of Washington University and is well known as a contributor to leading medical journals. Aside from his professional interests he conducts a large cattle ranch in central Florida, situated in Brevard county, where he has over two thousand head of cattle.
On the 22d of October, 1896, Dr. Hopkins was married in St. Louis to Miss Lina Vogeler, a native of this city and a daughter of Julius and Lina (Fuchs) Vogeler, both representatives of old St. Louis families. Her father is now de- ceased, but her mother is still living. Dr. and Mrs. Hopkins have become parents of four children, two of whom have passed away, the living being Alma J. (now Mrs. C. Byrne) and Milton J., Jr. The parents are members of the Baptist church and Dr. Hopkins was very active in the Red Cross work during the World war and also in the sale of Liberty bonds. He likewise volunteered for active service, but due to age was assigned to work in this country and was not called for service overseas. He finds his diversion largely in motoring and has made automobile tours through the west, the southeast and the southwest.
In a review of his life it will be found that his education was acquired through his own efforts, his labor supplying the funds for his tuition, and that from this initial step in his career he has worked his way steadily upward until for many years he has occupied a position of prominence in connection with the medical profession of St. Louis.
Guy Wilson
UY WILSON, president of the Traffic Motor Truck Corporation of G St. Louis, has in his business career demonstrated the fact that opportunity is ever open to ambition, diligence and determin- ation, for these qualities have been the dominant factors in the attainment of his present position and the success which has rewarded his labors. He was born in Christian county, Kentucky, May 1, 1878, his parents being Richard Henry and Maggie (Smith) Wilson. The father was a planter, who was descended from a long line of ancestors engaged in the same pursuits in Virginia. He had re- moved to Kentucky immediately following the close of the Civil war, in which he had served throughout the period of hositilies as an officer in the Confederate cavalry.
Guy Wilson obtained a public school education in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and started in business as a telegraph operator at a very early age with the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company in Kentucky. He remained in the railroad business until 1904, when he came to St. Louis and here turned his attention to insurance, becoming connected with the Prudential Insurance Company of America. He subsequently organized the firm of Rowland & Wilson, becoming state agents for the Prudential in Missouri, and within a brief period they developed the largest agency of the Prudential and one of the largest insurance ageneies in America. Mr. Wilson continued in the insurance business until the spring of 1915, when he retired from that field to look after investments in the automobile business. He became vice president of the Brandle Motors Company of St. Louis and soon afterward joined with Theodore C. Brandle, president of the Brandle Motors Company, and Harry P. Mammen, general sales manager for the Westcott Motor Car Company of Springfield, Ohio, in Organizing the Traffic Motor Truck Corporation, of which he is the president. Within three years' time this has become the largest exclusive builder of four thousand pounds' capacity motor trueks in the world and its produet is used through every civilized country on the face of the globe. In addition to his presidency of the Traffic Motor Truek Corporation, Mr. Wilson is also the president of the Finanee Investment Trust. His business career has been one of notable success and prosperity, due to his thoroughness, his splendid powers of organization, his systematic management of interests, his initiative and laudable purpose.
On the 2Ist of May, 1910, Mr. Wilson was married in Evansville, Indiana, to Miss Louise May, daughter of Adam and Phillipine May. They have become parents of two sons, Richard Henry and Louis Guy. Mr. Wilson belongs to the St. Louis Club. His political endorsement is given to republican principles and
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he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, but he has never had time nor inclination to become an aspirant for public office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his rapidly developing business interests and today St. Louis classes him among her prominent business men.
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Those Taylor
Thomas 2). Taylor, Al.D.
R. THOMAS W. TAYLOR, a well known urologist of St. Louis, D was born at Newcastle in Staffordshire, England, March 4, 1880, his parents being James and Elizabeth (Onions) Taylor, who likewise were natives of the Merrie Isle. It was in the year 1882 that the father brought the family to the new world, settling originally in New Castle, Pennsylvania, while later he removed to Piqua, Ohio, where he successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits for many years. He passed away December 16, 1915, at the advanced age of eighty, while his wife died in Piqua, in 1914, at the age of seventy-nine. They were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters.
Dr. Taylor, the youngest of the family, was but a year old when brought to the new world. He was educated in the public schools of New Castle, Pennsyl- vania, and of Covington, Kentucky, and completed his academic work at the Ohio Northern University, where he remained to within three months of his graduation. In 1905 he came to St. Louis and entered the Washington University as a medical student, being graduated in 1909. After receiving his professional degree he served as an interne in the St. Louis City Hospital for five months and later spent eighteen months in the Missouri Pacific Railroad Hospital. He then entered upon private practice in association with Dr. J. L. Boehm, with whom he was associated for two years and four months. On the expiration of that period he removed to Birmingham, Alabama, in May, 1913, to take charge of the Hamilton Clinical Laboratory, with which he was connected for seven months. Later, however, he returned to St. Louis to accept the professorship of bacter- iology and pathology in the National University of Arts and Sciences, contin- uing in that educational work until the close of the school. During this period he also engaged in private practice and likewise took post-graduate work under Dr. E. F. Tiedemann in bacteriology and pathology. He was one of the staff of the Skin and Cancer Hospital and is at present visiting dermatologist at the St. Louis City Hospital, Unit No. 3. During the World war Dr. Taylor served as a lieutenant of the United States navy, being stationed at the Naval Hospital at New Orleans with hospital unit No. 19, being honorably discharged February 22, 1919. He is a well known member of the St. Louis, Missouri State and American Medical Associations and also of the St. Louis Clinical Club.
On the 7th of September, 1915, in St. Louis, Dr. Taylor was married to Miss Grace P. Rundle, a native of this city and a daughter of John Rundle, representative of an English family. Dr. and Mrs. Taylor have become parents of two children: Grace Elizabeth, born in St. Louis, October 26, 1916; and Thomas Wilford, born February 24, 1920.
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Dr. Taylor gives his political endorsement to the republican party and belongs to Pride of the West Lodge, No. 79, A. F. & A. M., also to the Alhambra Grotto. He is likewise connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. He finds recreation in reading and in Y. M. C. A. work, taking active and helpful interest in the latter, while many of his happiest hours are spent in his library. His course has been marked by a steady progress that has resulted from the development of his natural talent and power, thorough study and close application bringing him to the front in his chosen life work.
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J. J. Cahill
Thomas Francis Cahill
AHILL, THOMAS FRANCIS: President Cahill, Swift Manu- C facturing Company, 1112 to 1120 Market street, St. Louis, Missouri; manufacturers and jobbers of plumbing, heating and mill supplies. Born in St. Louis, May 22, 1857; son of Patrick Cahill and Ellen (Slattery) Cahill. Parents were both natives of County Tipperary, Ireland, and settled in St. Louis more than seventy years ago. The father, Patrick Cahill, engaged in the blacksmithing and horseshoeing business, which trade he had learned in Ireland and was associated with such men as Edward Butler, who later became so well known to all St. Louisans; P. J. and John Pauley, later known for their connection with the Fulton Iron Works.
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