USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 17
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James &. Herbert
as president of the Colorado, Wyoming & Eastern Railroad, continuing his headquarters in Denver, where he remained until he resigned to accept his present position as president of the St. Louis & Southwestern Railway Com- pany in St. Louis. Here he has since continued. It will be noticed in the fore- going account that he has voluntarily severed every business connection by resignation and always to enter upon a more important position with larger responsibilities and greater opportunities until he has come to a most respon- sible place in railway circles, where he is giving his attention to constructive effort, administrative direction and executive control. He is also a director of subsidiary companies of this railroad.
On the 20th of June, 1888, Mr. Herbert was married in Howard, Kansas, to Miss Emma May Best, a native of Illinois and a daughter of Wesley and Mary Best, the former now deceased. Mr. Herbert belongs to the Episcopal church, to the Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis, and to the leading social and club organizations of the city, including the St. Louis Club, the Noonday Club, the Bellerive Country Club, the Ridgedale Club, the Country Club and the Veiled Prophet Club. He is a man of very charitable impulses, liberal to all worthy causes, yet his generosity is ever of a most unostentatious nature. A well read man on all general subjects, he speaks with authority upon the prob- lems of railroading and he has displayed marked initiative in originating and carrying out new methods of operation and service in connection with the railroads and correcting waste and extravagance. He possesses executive ability and indefatigable industry, mental alertness and firmness and experience has added to these qualities an equipment of accurate and detailed information on all branches of railroading. All who know him feel that his splendid success is well deserved, as individual effort and ability have brought him up from the humble position of telegraph operator to his present place of executive direction and administrative control. He was the first railway executive to put himself on record as against the issuance of free transportation to mem- bers of political organizations, office holders and legislators even before the interstate commerce commission ruled against such a practice. He has always been opposed to railroad political activity. One who has long known him says of Mr. Herbert: "He is a wonderfully adaptable man and shines equally well in shop or drawing room. His friends love him and his employes respect and admire him and work loyally for him, knowing him to be a thoroughly well qualified railroad executive and an untiring worker who never spares himself."
Z. . Blandly
Zachary C. Standly, M. D.
HERE are certain qualities indispensable to real success in the T practice of medieine and surgery. The individual must pos- sess not only broad scientific knowledge but must have as well that humanitarian spirit which finds expression in sym- pathy, helpfulness and cheer. Possessing in notable measure all these requirements, Dr. Zachary T. Standly was for many years a most prominent, capable and successful representa- tive of the medical profession in Laclede and at the time of his death was the oldest practicing physician of the city. He had carried aid and comfort into so many hundreds of households in his section of the state that the news of his demise brought a sense of personal bereavement to all who knew him and his memory is yet cherished in the hearts of all with whom he came in contact.
Dr. Standly was born near Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, January 13, 1847, his parents being Richard and Catherine (Bullock) Standly, who were natives of eastern Tennessee. The father, whose birth occurred in 1812, be- came a resident of Edgar county, Illinois, in 1840, establishing his home near Paris, the county seat, where he engaged in farming throughout his remain- ing days, his death resulting from injuries received in a runaway accident which occurred in October, 1869. His wife had passed away in September of the same year.
Dr. Standly was then a young man of twenty-two years. He had been reared upon his father's farm, having the usual experiences and training of the farm-bred boy. He supplemented his public school education by study in the Edgar Academy at Paris and began preparation for a professional career by reading medicine under the direction of a private tutor. In 1867 he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Michigan and in the following year attended Rush Medieal College of Chicago, in which he won his professional degree by graduation with the class of February, 1870.
Dr. Standly located for practice at Laclede and never once did he regret his choice of a location, for he soon developed a good practice that grew with the passing years, and long maintained the position of the foremost physician and surgeon in his part of the state. He always kept abreast with the trend of modern scientific research and investigation and an almost intuitive wis- dom in such matters enabled him to select just what was needed in each specific case to further the purposes of his praetiee. In 1880 he also became a partner in the drug firm of Markham & Company, conducting a store at Laelede. As the years passed and he prospered in his undertakings he likewise broadened the scope of his activity and his investments and became a partner in the Lomax & Standly Bank of Laclede, of which he long served as president, con-
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tinning in that position to the time of his demise. He was likewise a director of the Central States Life Insurance Company of St. Louis and the president. of the Laclede Electric Light Company. In all of his business affairs he was actuated by a most progressive spirit that sought the betterment and upbuild- ing of existing conditions and brought added welfare and success to the busi- ness circles of his adopted eity. Throughout his life, however, he regarded the practice of medicine as his real life work and nothing could swerve him from his duty in that connection. For more than a quarter of a century he was sur- geon at Laclede for the Burlington Railroad and he was an active member of the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
On the 2nd of June, 1872, Dr. Standly was married to Miss Jennie Vance, also a native of Edgar county, Illinois. They had three children, of whom two are living: Catherine V., the wife of Walter Brownlee; and Horace M., of Laclede, Missouri. The wife and mother passed away November 29, 1882, and on the 1st of May, 1895, Dr. Standly was married to Miss Ella B. Griffin, of Glidden, Iowa. They had one son, Harold G., who is a student in the Uni- versity of Kansas at Lawrence, where he is fitting himself for the banking business as the successor of his father.
Dr. Standly belonged to the Masonic fraternity, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen and was a most devoted and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, his religious faith guiding him in every relation of life. He was kindly, genial, courteous-a man whom to know was to esteem and honor, and when he passed away on the 14th of December, 1914, there was not one who knew him but felt that a noble life had been brought to its close.
DaFrank.
David Antonio Frank
AVID ANTONIO FRANK, recognized as a lawyer of unusual D ability, who since January, 1908, has been connected with the legal department of telephone interests, was made general counsel of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in April, 1916, and through the intervening period has made his home in St. Louis. He was born at Willis, Texas, December 15, 1875, his parents being Antoine and Emma Louise (Boykin) Frank. The father was born in Bordeaux, France, and on coming to America in 1858 settled in New Orleans but afterward removed to Mobile, Alabama, and in 1875 took up his abode at Willis, Texas, where during the later years of his life he was engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was a Civil war veteran, having served as a private in a Louisiana company of the Confederate army. He passed away in 1908, at the age of sixty-five years, while his wife died at Willis, Texas, in 1893, at the age of forty. She was born in Mobile, Alabama, and was a representative of an old South Carolina family of English deseent. By her marriage she became the mother of nine children, five sons and four daughters, of whom seven are living.
David A. Frank, the eldest of the family, after attending the public schools of Willis, Texas, continued his education in the University of Texas, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905 and with the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1903. He served for two years as quiz master in the law department of the University of Texas, from 1903 until 1905. Pre- vious to this he was editor of the Texas Tohaceo Plant, which was published at Willis, Texas, and for nine years he was a teacher in the schools of Texas, spending the last two years of that period as principal of the high school at Conroe, Texas. After preparing for the bar he entered upon the practice of law in the office of the general attorney of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company at Dallas and there continued from 1905 until September, 1914, and during the last six years of that period was assistant general attorney. He then became assistant in the general counsel's office of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company in New York, where he continued until September. 1916. In April of the same year, however, he became general counsel of the Southwestern Bell Telephone System at St. Louis and has since occupied this position. He was also president and assistant general attorney of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company of Texas until 1914, when he removed to New York, and he is now the vice president of the Grand Prairie & Northern Railroad of Texas. Hle is well grounded and able in all branches of the law but excels in that branch of corporation law relating to the regulation of public utilities. He has always been a foreeful speaker and was class orator at the time of his graduation from the University of Texas in 1905. He has always been re-
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garded as an able debater, becoming well known in this connection during his college days, and he has likewise been keenly interested in college athletics, having established several prizes for excellence in athletics in the University of Texas. Ile also established a prize for the best poem and for the best novel written by a student in the University of Texas, thus contributing a stim- ulating element for literary production as well as athletic excellence in the university.
While in Dallas, Texas, Mr. Frank was married June 12, 1906, to Nora Warrena Finley, a native of the Lone Star state and a daughter of Judge N. W. and Minnie Lee (Simms) Finley, the latter a daughter of Captain Simms, a Confederate war veteran, while Judge Finley was a grandson of Dr. Finley, a pioneer Methodist minister widely known throughout the south. Judge Fin- ley served for years as chief justice of the court of civil appeals for the fifth supreme judicial district of Texas and was a most eminent jurist and prom- inent citizen of the south, passing away in 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Frank had three children: Minnie Warrena, who was born in Dallas, Texas, March 17, 1907 : David A., Jr., whose birth occurred in Dallas, Texas, September 6, 1910; and Katherine Louise, born in St. Louis, Missouri, on the 11th of June, 1916. The wife and mother died October 22, 1918, at the age of thirty-one years, her birth having occurred August 8, 1887.
Mr. Frank won the Phi Beta Kappa upon his graduation from college. His military record covered service as corporal of Company D, Third Texas Vol- unteer Infantry, during the Spanish-American war. Fraternally he is con- nected with Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M., of St. Louis, and has at- tained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. His social nature finds expression in his membership in the Lakewood Golf and Country Club of Dallas, the Sunset Country Club of St. Louis, the St. Louis Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Missouri Athletic Association, the City Club, the Civic League and the Chamber of Commerce. He belongs also to the City Club of Dallas, the Southern Society of New York and the Railroad Club of New York City. He is keenly and helpfully interested in the work of St. John's Methodist Episcopal church, is serving on its official board and as assistant superintendent of the Sunday school. Along professional lines he is connected with the Dallas, St. Louis, Texas State, Missouri State and American Bar Associations. The inter- ests of his life are broad and varied and his aid and influence have always been given on the side of progress, improvement, right and reform. He is a man of philanthropie disposition who gives generously to charity. Polite, courteous, publie spirited, patriotic and democratic in spirit, he has always been very popular. He is a thorough scholar, a convincing speaker and with splendid command of English. In a word he was well endowed by nature and he has used his talents most wisely, not only for his own advancement but for the benefit of his fellowmen, and he finds one of his chief interests in life in put- ting before the young those opportunities which shall give them encouragement and lend them assistance in meeting life's responsibilities and duties.
herbert P. Wright
ERBERT P. WRIGHT, investment banker and man of affairs H of Kansas City, is one who holds to high ideals in business and is jealous of his well earned reputation. He possesses a genius for organization of business enterprises and his greatest success has been in aiding corporations in developing their interests and in the organization and financing of large com- mereial concerns, in which connection he is known through- out the country. A native of Illinois, he was born at Stockton, June 24, 1865, and is a son of Burton Wright, whose birth occurred in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in 1828. The father still survives and now makes his home at Woodstock, Ili- nois, where for a long period he was a prosperous farmer, taking up his abode there in pioneer times. He was also active in civie affairs, supporting all those interests which constitute features of publie progress and improvement, and his life has been actuated by his belief as a member of the Congregational church. ITis wife, who bore the maiden name of Hulda Coon, was born in Ohio and is also living. The family numbered two children, Herbert P. and his brother, Charles B., who is now with the firm of Spencer Trask & Company of Chieago.
Herbert P. Wright was educated in the high school at Woodstoek, Illinois, and in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, from which he was grad- uated in 1887 with the Bachelor of Science degree, while in 1890 he won the Master of Science degree. He was elected to membership on the board of trustees of Northwestern University in June, 1920. In 1887 he came to Kan- sas City and through the intervening period has largely been identified with the banking business. The firm of the II. P. Wright Investment Company occupies large ground floor offices at No. 923 Baltimore street. They deal extensively in municipal and corporation bonds. The business was founded in 1885. In 1889 Mr. Wright acquired an interest in the firm and changed the name to II. P. Wright & Company. In 1904 the business was incorporated as The II. P. Wright Investment Company of which he has been the president since its incorporation. In the conduet of the business the company special- izes in Missouri and Kansas municipal bonds, also handles government and corporation bonds. Mr. Wright, as the executive head of the company, has largely directed its poliey and its activities yet has not confined his attention alone to this line, for he is the president of the Kansas Gas & Electric Company, which is the largest public utilities company of Kansas. Ile is likewise the president of the Home Light, Ileat & Power Company of Pittsburg, Kansas, a director of the American Power & Light Company of New York and one of its incorporators, and was one of the organizers of the great Loose-Wiles Bis- cuit Company, which was formed in 1912 and is one of the foremost concerns
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of the kind in the United States. He is likewise one of the incorporators of the Kansas City Life Insurance Company, of which he is a director, and in 1915 he organized the Sinelair Oil Company of New York, which ranks second in its volume of business to the Standard Oil Company.
In 1890 Mr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Haw, of Ot- tumwa, Iowa, a daughter of George Haw, a prominent citizen and pioneer banker and wholesale hardware merchant of that place, connected with the First National Bank, which is the oldest banking institution of the state. To Mr. and Mrs. Wright have been born two children: Herbert E., who was drowned while a junior at the University of Wisconsin ; and Lillian, twenty-one years of age, now a student in Northwestern University of Illinois.
Mr. Wright is a member of the Sigma Chi, a national eollege fraternity. Ile was one of the organizers of the Investment Bankers Association of Amer- ica and has been a member of its board of governors and its vice president from the beginning until 1918, when according to the terms of the by-laws he was no longer eligible for office. Ile also belongs to the American Bankers Asso- ciation. During the war period he served on the executive committee for the local loan drives and there was no phase of war activity which sought his aid in vain. He was a member of the capital issues board of the tenth federal reserve distriet. His political allegiance has always been given to the repub- lican party and he is thoroughly in touch with the vital questions and prob- lems of the day. For thirty years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, guiding his life according to its teachings. He belongs to the Kansas City Club, the University Club, the Blue Ifills and Mission Hills Country Clubs, the Hillerest Country Club and various hunting and fishing elubs. He is also connected with the Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, with the Union League Club of Chicago and the Bankers Club of New York city. He finds recreation in golf and he is a man who takes keen delight in the solution of business problems. In this connection he displays notable ability in coordinating and relating seemingly diverse elements, which he combines into a unified and harmonious whole. With notable prescience he seems to grasp the main features and opportunities of a business situation and so utilizes each that the most desired results are accomplished, while at all times he holds to the highest ideals of business.
Calilliam L. Moore
HE life of every individual contributes to the progress and ad- T vancement of the community in which he lives, or acts as a bar thereto, and the man of patriotie spirit is he who acknowl- edges in days of peace as well as in times of war that he owes a duty to his country and fully meets the obligation. In William L. Moore was a citizen who made distinct and valu- able contribution to the welfare and progress of Linneus and Linn county. He was long active as a representative of the agricultural interests and later of the banking business in his county and at the same time found opportunity to assist in all matters pertaining to the public good.
Mr. Moore was born in Anderson county, Tennessee, July 20, 1839, and was a son of Joseph C. and Jane (Pate) Moore, who were representatives of old southern families long resident in Tennessee. The parents came to Linn county, Missouri, in 1842, when William L. Moore was but three years of age, and took up their abode on a farm near Linneus, where they spent their remaining days. The son was reared on that farm and acquired his education in the old-time subseription schools. After reaching man's estate he engaged in farming and stock raising on his own account and successfully continued his activity along that line until he was numbered among the most prominent and prosperous farmers of Linn county, becoming the possessor of a large acreage of highly productive and well improved land. He also kept a large amount of live stock upon his place and both branches of his business proved attractive sonrees of revenue to him. In 1896 he entered banking eireles, forming a partnership with Major Alexander W. Mullins under the firm style of Moore & Mullins. They established a private bank, carrying on a general banking business, and by close attention and a liberal poliey in conducting their bank made it one of the largest and most popular financial institutions in this section of the state. Mr. Moore contributed in marked measure to this result, giving his undivided time and attention to the management of the bank. He closely studied questions of finance and became thoroughly informed upon all the vital problems relative to the sueeessful management of banking institutions. His business integrity was unassailable and his reliability as well as his enterprise constituted a strong element in the snecess of the bank.
On the 18th of September, 1870, Mr. Moore was married to Miss Emily F. Mullins, and they became the parents of three children, Greely, Robert B. and Edith, the last named being the wife of Frederick H. Powers, of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Moore's sons succeeded to his interest in the bank and they also own and operate large farms adjacent to Linneus and are numbered among the prominent live stock dealers of Linn county. They reside in Linneus, from which
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point they control their important business interests, and they occupy a most prominent position in the business and social circles of the city.
The family circle was broken by the hand of death when on the 14th of March, 1914, Mr. Moore passed away when in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was a man of public spirit, always active in support of measures and plans for the general good, and his contribution to the welfare of the community was valuable. If a pen picture could accurately delineate his business characteristics it might be given in these words: a progressive spirit, ruled by more than ordi- nary intelligence and good judgment; a deep earnestness, impelled and fostered by indomitable perseverance; a native justice expressing itself in correct prin- ciple and practice. Not seeking honors, but simply endeavoring to do his duty, honors were yet multiplied to him and prosperity followed all his undertakings.
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Walter B. Stevens
Walter Barlow Stebens
ALTER BARLOW STEVENS, newspaper man and author, W was born at Meriden, Connecticut, July 25, 1848, son of Rev. Asahel Augustus and Mary Comstock (Bristol) Stevens. The family moved to the middle west in 1855. Walter B. Stevens passed his youth in Peoria, Illinois, attending the grade and high schools. Ile graduated from the University of Michigan in the class of 1870, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was given the Master of Arts degree in 1872. In 1908 he received the hon- orary degree of LL. D. from Washington University, St. Louis.
Beginning as a reporter in 1870, Mr. Stevens served as city editor and staff correspondent. He was Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Globe- Democrat from 1884 to 1901; president of the Gridiron Club, 1895; traveling correspondent of the Globe-Democrat, between sessions of Congress, in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Cuba. Letters over the signature "W. B. S." appeared in serial form under the titles: "The New States," "Convict Camps," "Mis- souri Mineral," "Silver in a Silver Country," "Black Labor in the South," "Washington Topics," "Signs of the Times," "Recollections of Lincoln," etc.
Mr. Stevens was secretary of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company from its organization in 1901; was director of exploitation and member of the superior jury of awards in 1904. In 1908 he was secretary of the National Prosperity Association; in 1909 was secretary of the St. Louis Centennial Asso- ciation. In 1912 he became secretary of the City Plan Commission and served until 1916. He was executive secretary of the Fourth American Peace Con- gress in 1913. The following deeorations have been received : Knight of the Crown of Italy, 1904; Double Dragon of China, 1905; Chevalier of the Order of Leopold of Belgium, 1905: First Class Medal of Honor, Philippine Govern- ment, 1905; Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, 1905; Officier de l'Instruetion Publique of France.
In religious faith Mr. Stevens is a Congregationalist ; in politieal opinion, a Republican. He is a member of the Missouri Historical Society ; seeretary of the Louisiana Purchase Historical Association ; was elected president of the State Historical Society of Missouri in 1917 and re-elected in 1920. He is a member of the National Geographic Society and of Phi Beta Kappa. Club memberships are the St. Louis, the City, the Round Table, the Burns, the Frank- lin of St. Louis, and the Gridiron, Washington.
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