USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 37
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Mr. Davis was born in Lewis county, New York, on October 4, 1842, and died at Brookfield May 31, 1912. He was a son of William and Susan (Williams) Davis, also natives of the state of New York. The father was a carpenter and farmer. He was prominent in the public life of his township in his native county, and filled many of its offices with credit to himself and advantage to the township. The whole of his life was passed in his native state and he died there in 1900. His widow also died in that state, passing away in 1906.
They were the parents of six children, three of whom are living, Robert being the only one residing in Missouri at the time of his death. The others are: David H., a missionary in China and con- nected with the Chinese government in an official capacity; Charles M., who is a farmer in Oneida county, New York; and Henry E., who is also a resident of New York state. Their paternal grandfather was Benjamin Davis, a native of New York and a pioneer farmer of Lewis county in that state, where he died after a long life of diligent labor and general usefulness.
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Robert W. Davis was reared in Oneida county, New York, and educated in the schools of Rome in that county. In August, 1863, when he was not yet of age, he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Forty-sixth New York Volunteer Infantry, for the remainder of the Civil War, which was then at the height of its fierceness and fury. His regiment was known as the Fifth Oneida, and became part of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under the command of Gen- eral Meade.
Mr. Davis took part in numerous engagements which led up to the terrible battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. In the awful carnage of that battle he was shot through the groin, and the wound disabled him for further active service during the war. For a number of years after the close of the momentous contest he was a cripple. He was formally discharged from the army in June, 1865, and immediately returned to his home in Oneida county, New York. There he engaged in contracting and building until 1880, and part of the time was super- intendent of bridges on the Erie canal in the employ of the state of New York, with duties ranging from Albany to Buffalo.
In 1880 the persuasive voice of the great undeveloped West had potency with him and he came to Missouri, locating in Brookfield. He bought a farm north of the city and during the next six years followed farming with sedulous attention to all the requirements of his calling, and since then was also extensively engaged in buying, feeding and shipping live stock, and dealing in real estate and life insurance. In addition he was one of the founders of the Brookfield Paving Brick Company, and was a stockholder and one of the directors of the Linn County Bank, a financial institution of acknowledged strength. In politics he was a pronounced Republican, and while living in New York was very active in the service of his party.
Mr. Davis was married three times. His first wife, whom he mar- ried in 1867, died in 1871. In 1873 he was united with Miss Helen E. Clarke, a daughter of A. O. and Fannie (Holloway) Clarke. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both of whom are living. They are: Mabel F., the wife of Leon R. Lane, of Topeka, Kansas, and Albert C., a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Their mother died in 1891, and in 1894 the father married his last wife, whose maiden name was Katharine Roberts. They had five children: Robert V., Helen, Louise, Frances and Theodore, all of whom are living at home with their mother, and adding life, light and warmth to the family circle.
The father was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic
3. I Standy
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and commander of the post at the time of his death. His last service was the day before his death, when he was in command of the post on Memorial Day at Brookfield and marched with his old comrades for the last time. He was an enthusiastic Freemason of the Knights Tem- plar degree. Although not to the manner of Missourians born, he readily adapted himself to his surroundings and the ways and aspira- tions of the people, and became as one of them. He had shown an intel- ligent and helpful interest in their welfare and done what he could to promote it, and had won their full confidence and esteem by his high character, sterling manhood and wide-awake and serviceable citizen- ship. Missouri was to him all that New York ever was, and he was to Missouri all he ever was or could have been to New York in the value of his devotion to the common weal of the state and his contributions to its advancement.
ZACHARY T. STANDLY, M. D.
This eminent physician and surgeon has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession for forty-two years, and all of the time has made Laclede, Jefferson township, his home and base of operations. He is the oldest physician in continuous practice in Linn county, and one of the county's most estimable, influential and respected citizens. By long service to the people, in which he has shown great skill and mastery in his profession he has risen to the first rank in it. By ear- nest devotion to the interests of his township and county he has won popular approval universal in extent and of the highest degree in char- acter. And by his genial nature, obliging disposition and fine social qualities he has endeared himself to the people around him as few men ever do anywhere.
Dr. Standly was born near Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, on Janu- ary 13, 1847, and is a son of Richard and Catherine (Bullock) Standly, both natives of eastern Tennessee. The father was born in 1812, and moved to Illinois in 1840, locating in Edgar county, near Paris, the county seat, where he passed the remainder of his life busily engaged in profitable farming. He died in October, 1869, of injuries received in a run-away accident, his team having become frightened and getting beyond his control. The mother died just one month before his tragic end came, in September, 1869.
The doctor's early life was passed on his father's farm and in the enjoyment of the educational facilities of his neighborhood. He after- ward attended the Edgar Academy in Paris, and there completed his
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academic education. Soon afterward, having determined to make the practice of medicine and surgery his work for life, he began prepara- tion for the profession by private reading under the direction of a judi- cious tutor. After spending some months on this plan he passed the year 1867-8 as a student in the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in that state, and the next year attended Rush Medical College, in Chicago, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in February, 1870.
From the college he came at once to Laclede to practice his pro- fession, having selected that town as his location with all the country from which to make a choice. All the years of his subsequent life have been passed in that town, and his success as a physician and the high regard he enjoys as a man and citizen prove that his choice was wisely made. But the results of his residence here prove that he would have done well anywhere, as he possessed within him the qualities which always command success. He soon had a good practice, and in 1880 was able to embark with other persons in the drug trade under the firm name of Markham & Company.
One of the elements in the case which had its bearing in directing his energies was the fact that on his arrival at Laclede the doctor had but twenty dollars in cash capital, all told, and his only other stock in trade was his professional education, which was to be governed and guided by a will and a spirit of energy that had stricken the word "fail" out of his lexicon. For some years he devoted himself wholly to his profession, then, as he made progress in a worldly way in that, he gave attention to other sources of revenue and usefulness, and made them also beneficial to the community and profitable to himself.
His first venture in business outside of his profession was in the drug trade, as has been noted. He is now president of the banking company of Lomax & Standly in Laclede, a director of the Central States Life Insurance Company of St. Louis, and president of the Laclede Electric Light Company, which was recently organized and of which he was one of the principal and most energetic promoters. He is also connected with other institutions of value to the community, and is always earnestly and effectively interested in every project involving its substantial welfare and wholesome progress, morally, intellectually, socially and materially.
It is to be understood, however, that Dr. Standly's attention to these side lines in business has never lessened his devotion to his pro- fession or his industry and zeal in performing the duties belonging to it. He has kept up his active practice without regard to his personal
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comfort or convenience, and it has kept pace with his diligent attention to it. He has been the surgeon at Laclede for the Burlington railroad system during all of the last twenty-five years, and has also been an industrious and thoughtful student of the best medical literature, and an active member of the State Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association.
The doctor has taken a cordial interest in the fraternal life of his community for many years. He belongs to the Masonic Order, the Order of Elks, the Order of Odd Fellows and the Order of Woodmen, and his membership in each is highly valued by its other members. Church affairs have also had a large share of his service, he having been an active, working member of the Methodist Episcopal church for thirty-nine years. On June 2, 1872, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Vance, who was of the same nativity as himself. They had three children, two of whom are living: Their daughter Catherine V., now Mrs. Walter Brownlee, who was a practicing physician in Brookfield, and their son Horace M., who is a resident of Mojave, Cali- fornia. The mother of these children died on June 7, 1882, and on May 1, 1895, the doctor was married again, uniting himself with Miss Ella B. Griffin of Glidden, Iowa. Of this marriage one child has been born, a son named Harold G., who is still living at home with his parents.
HENRY J. WEST
In the prime of his manhood, with all his faculties alert and active, well educated academically, ambitious for a high rank in his profession and eager for advancement, Henry J. West, junior member of the law firm of Bresnehen & West, is one of the most promising lawyers in this part of Missouri. He already has high standing at the bar and in the esteem of the people as a man and citizen, but nothing short of the best he can attain to will satisfy him or meet the expectations of his host of confident and admiring friends, who have watched his career with cordial interest.
Mr. West is a native of this county and was born on a farm north- west of Linneus on December 31, 1873. His parents, Robert N. and Susan K. (Mills) West, were born and reared in Washington county, Pennsylvania. The father moved to Putnam county, Illinois, early in his manhood and lived there until about 1870, then came to Missouri and took up his residence in this county. He was a farmer and fol- lowed his occupation in the neighborhood of Linneus until 1892. He
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then moved to Oklahoma and afterward to Rockyford, Colorado, where he retired from active pursuits, enjoying the rest he had so richly earned and the comfortable estate he had accumulated by his industry and good management until his death which occurred on February 29, 1912.
In politics he was always a Democrat but never an office-seeker. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, three of whom died in infancy and one, Harry K. West, a sketch of whose life will be found in this work, on June 16, 1907, at the age of forty-seven years. The other four are living, but the subject of this brief review is the only one of them who resides in Linn county. The paternal grandfather, Eli Mills, was a Pennsylvania Quaker and one of the early settlers of Illinois.
Henry J. West grew to manhood in this county and began his scholastic training in its district schools. He afterward attended Missouri Wesleyan College at Cameron, this state, and after leaving, that institution taught school two years. But he had aspirations toward professional life and began the study of law under the direction of his brother Harry K. West, at Marceline as soon as he was through with his second year of teaching. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1895, and for a time practiced at Marceline, then, until 1907, at Keytes- ville in Chariton county, always rising in professional rank and grow- ing into enlarged popularity and esteem among the people.
On the death of his brother, Harry K. West, in June, 1907, he moved to Brookfield and took the place in the firm of Bresnehen & West which his brother had occupied. While living in Keytesville he served as mayor of that city, and gave it an administration yet highly commended by its inhabitants, pushing forward every work of merit in the way of public improvement and carefully looking after every interest of the people and every means of progress for the community.
When the Spanish-American War began he was fired with patriotic zeal and enlisted in the service of his country in Company A, Sixth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and was soon afterward commissioned second lieutenant. He remained in the service ten months, his enroll- ment taking place in July, 1898, and performed his duty with admira- ble devotion to all its requirements. During a portion of the time his regiment was on guard duty in Havana, and did excellent work for that city in helping to improve its sanitary condition and promote its gen- eral welfare.
When the regiment was mustered out of the service Mr. West returned to his home in Missouri, and on October 18, 1899, was united
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in marriage with Miss Grace C. Egan, a resident of Keytesville, who now presides over their hospitable home in Brookfield with a grace and genuine consideration for all their friends which make it one of the attractive social resorts of the city and a fine representative of Missouri domestic life.
In partisan politics Mr. West is a pronounced Democrat and one of the effective and most highly valued workers for the welfare of his party. He has not sought a political office of any kind, however, as his professional work fully satisfies his desires and absorbs his time to the exclusion of other lines of endeavor except those which his public spirit leads him to engage in and the social claims of the community, to which he is always cheerfully and helpfully responsive. His fraternal connection is with the Order of Elks, of which he is an enthusiastic and valued member.
DR. ROBERT HALEY
This eminent physician and surgeon, who is well and favorably known in all parts of Missouri, and is everywhere held in the highest esteem, was born in Ontario, Canada, on April 12, 1859, but has lived in Missouri since 1868 and in Brookfield since 1884. He may there- fore be called a product of Missouri without impropriety, inasmuch as nearly the whole of his life has been passed in the state, and he received his education, professional training and social tastes and habits among its people.
The doctor's parents, James and Mary (Hawkens) Haley, were natives of Canada also, but were born in the province of New Bruns- wick, where their ancestors settled on their arrival in this continent from Ireland and Scotland, the families having been domesticated in that country for many generations. The father was a farmer, and, after a residence of some years in Ontario, brought his family to Mis- souri, locating near Marceline in this county, in 1868. He took up a tract of wild land and improved it into a highly productive farm, which he cultivated until his death in 1877. He had been a sailor during his residence in New Brunswick, and followed the sea for a number of years. His wife died in Canada in 1867. They were the parents of a large number of children, but six of whom are living.
Dr. Haley reached his manhood and obtained the greater part of his academic education in Linn county, but for this attended only the public schools. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. E. J. Cantwell of Marceline in 1877, and later continued it under the
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direction of Dr. J. D. Smith, surgeon for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in St. Joseph, remaining with him one year. He then attended the Hospital Medical College in St. Joseph, and was graduated from that institution in 1881. He was not satisfied with his preparation, however, and pursued a full course of medical study at the St. Louis Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1884, with the degree of M. D.
He at once located in Brookfield and began the practice of his profession, and during all the subsequent years he has continued it with steadily increasing patronage and higher standing as a physician and a man in the estimation of the public. He has ever been pro- gressive and zealously studious in his work. In 1893 he took a post graduate course at the Polyclinic Medical School in Chicago, and in 1895 another at the Post Graduate College in New York city. The doctor is a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and with a view to perfecting himself in knowledge for this line of prac- tice he attended the Polyclinic Institute in New Orleans during the winter of 1904-5.
Dr. Haley uses all the means at his command to keep himself posted in his profession and abreast of its latest thought and dis- coveries. He has served as president and has long been a member of the Linn County Medical Society and the North Missouri Medical Association. He is also a member of the Grand River District Medical Society and its treasurer, and has served as its president. In the pro- ceedings of these organizations he takes an active part both in seeking and in imparting information, and does all he can to make their work as valuable to their members as possible. He is also a member of the American Medical and Missouri State Medical Associations.
In politics the doctor is a pronounced Democrat and fervently loyal to his party. He is one of its energetic and effective workers in this county, and has weight and influence in its councils throughout the state. In 1900 he was a delegate to the national Democratic con- vention and an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Bryan for his second nomination for the presidency. He has served as chairman of the county central committee of the party, and has proven himself to be a very judicious leader and effective organizer. Fraternally he is connected with the Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Macca- bees and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Dr. Haley has been twice married. His first union of this kind was with Miss Emma Redding, and occurred in 1885. They had two children, one of whom has died. The living son, Roy, is a student at
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the State University. His mother died in 1891, and in 1896 the father married Miss Jessie Turner, of Linn county. They have one child, their son Jesse. The parents are among the leading citizens of the county and are universally accorded a rank which makes them repre- sentative of all that is best and most admirable in the life and char- acter of its people. They take a deep and helpful interest in all that ministers to the welfare of the locality, and are energetic in augment- ing the power and increasing the usefulness of every good agency at work in it for its advancement and improvement.
SAMUEL P. HARTMAN
The wonderful possibilities in American industrial, commercial and professional life, which are portrayed in glowing advertisements and rainbow-tinted allurements on the printed page, powerfully arrest the imagination of foreigners, and engross their most ardent interest. Even the prosaic domain of agricultural pursuits, as governed by con- ditions in this country, is so presented to the foreign reader as to thrill him with the story and beget dreams almost as extravagant as those depicted in the Arabian Nights. Practical experience takes something out of the romance of these dreams, and shows that here, as elsewhere, toil and trial, patient industry and endurance are neces- sary to win the promised triumphs, but that there is, even at the worst, a substantial basis of real opportunity which makes this land of promise a veritable Eldorado to the rest of the world.
So found Solomon and Laura (Poper) Hartman, the parents of Samuel P. Hartman, natives of the province of Bohemia, Austria, when they came to the United States in 1864, and after a short resi- dence in the city of St. Louis, located at Collinsville, Illinois. They passed their time well on toward the meridian of life in their native land, where the father was engaged in the live stock industry, on the small scale on which it is conducted in that country, and after their arrival at Collinsville he took a hand in the grocery trade.
He remained at Collinsville twenty-five years, actively occupied in business, and at the end of that period retired from active pursuits. He is now living in St. Louis, enjoying a well-earned rest and the fruits of his productive labor for the remainder of his days. He and his wife were married in their native land in 1846. They had ten children, five of whom are living: Adolph, at this time (1912) deputy sheriff of St. Louis county, Missouri; Theresa, the wife of Solomon
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Stampfer, of St. Louis; Gus, a member of the state senate of Califor- nia and a leading attorney of San Francisco in that state; Samuel P., the subject of these paragraphs ; and Phil W., who lives in Chillicothe, this state.
The parents are still living and rejoicing in their own prosperity and the excellent work their offspring is credited with in the localities of the several homes which the enterprising sons and the faithful daughter occupy. For many years the father was interpreter in the employ of the courts of St. Louis, and he discharged his duty in that capacity with the same intelligence and fidelity that he displayed in every other call to service, either in public or private channels.
His son, Samuel P. Hartman, was but eight years of age when the family came to the United States. He was born in the province in Austria where his parents came into being, and his life began there on April 13, 1856. He remained at home with his parents until he reached the age of twelve, and then, with characteristic self-reliance and force of character, took up the burden of life for himself, going to St. Louis and accepting employment as a clerk in a store in a very subordinate position and at very low wages, but by frugality in living, making his resources meet his wants.
In 1870 he came to Linneus and entered the employ of Emanuel & Brandenberger, with whom he remained six years. In 1876 Mr. Emanuel came to Brookfield and, after a brief investigation of condi- tions, opened a branch store at Bucklin, and others in other towns. In these enterprises he made Mr. Hartman his partner, and they were carried on for a time with advantage to both. Some time afterward Mr. Emanuel retired from business and the Hartman-Tooey Mercan- tile Company was formed. The men who formed this company were Mr. Hartman, Henry Tooey and Herman Baer, now a resident and business man of Beloit, Kansas.
Mr. Hartman is now engaged in real estate business at Kansas City in company with his son, Harold H., and they enjoy a large busi- ness. In addition he is vice-president of the Linn County Bank and one of its directors, and is also interested in lands in Kansas, Mis- souri and Oklahoma. The range and versatality of his mind give him capacity to conduct several enterprises at the same time, and he attends to them all with his characteristic energy and progressiveness.
On September 19, 1884, he was married to Miss Emma Hanauer, who died November 22, 1897, leaving two children as the fruit of the union : Sette E., who is the wife of James Fore, of Denver, Colorado, and Harold H., who is living at Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Hartman
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is a Freemason of the Knights Templar degree in the York rite and the thirty-second degree in the Scottish rite and Shrine. He also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His member- ship in these orders shows his interest in the fraternal life of his com- munity. What he has done and helped to do for the general advance- ment and improvement of the city of Brookfield and the county of Linn would be a long story and would involve support of every com- mendable project tending to this end that has been undertaken since he became a resident of the county, for he is foremost in every worthy enterprise involving the substantial and enduring welfare of the peo- ple. He is a successful merchant, and as such has contributed liberally to the mercantile enterprise and influence of the county. He is also an excellent citizen, and in that capacity has been of great benefit to this part of the state. No man in Linn county is more highly respected, and the services of none for the general weal are held in higher appre- ciation.
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