USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 47
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
marriage with Miss Mabel Grice. They have one child, their son, Algie L.
JOEL W. CLEMENTS
Joel W. Clements, one of the leading grocers of Brookfield, was born and reared to the age of thirteen in the state of Maryland, whose history is glorious in peace and war, and whose record challenges the admiration of all students of American chronicles. His life began in that state on September 5, 1864, and he is a son of Richard W. Clements, a sketch of whom will be found in this work. His parents and his grandparents were born and reared in Delaware, but the former lived for a time in Maryland.
From there his parents came to Missouri in 1877, bringing their offspring with them, as they had decided to pass the remainder of their days here. Their son Joel grew to manhood in this county and com- pleted in its schools the education he had begun in those of his native state. For ten years after he took up the battle of life for himself he was engaged in farming, and following that was employed for seven years by B. J. G. Bettelheim selling farming implements.
In 1904 he started business in the grocery trade on his own account, and in that line of commercial enterprise he has been occupied ever since. He has been successful in his mercantile venture, as he has in everything else he has undertaken, and is now regarded as one of the leading business men of the city, modern, up-to-date and progressive in every way, and familiar with every phase and feature of his trade. He studies the markets, and knows how to use them to the best advantage. He also studies the wants of the community, and keeps himself and his stock at all times prepared to fully provide for them in his lines of commodities.
Mr. Clements is, moreover, a man of great public spirit and enter- prise in reference to public improvements and the development and improvemnt of his city and county. He takes an active interest and a leading part in the execution of all projects designed to promote the welfare of his locality and benefit its people, and his zeal in all such undertakings is highly appreciated for the intelligence he applies to it, the excellent judgment he exhibits and the great and stimulating energy he puts into the work.
On December 23, 1885, Mr Clements was joined in marriage with Miss Phoebe L. McNish, a native of Ontario, Canada. She is a daugh- ter of George and Levina McNish, who came to Missouri in 1867.
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Mr. and Mrs. Clements have had six children, five of whom are living: George W., Laura L., Levina M., Joel, and Grace E. The father is connected fraternally with the Masonic order, the Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a zealous and effective worker in all these organizations and their other members hold his alliance with them in high appreciation. In politics he is a Democrat, always loyal to his party but never an active partisan or candidate for office. He is faithful, however, in the strict performance of all the duties of citizenship according to the highest standards, and is regarded by all classes of the people as one of their best business men and most useful and representative specimens of elevated manhood, with lofty ideals as his guide and a strong sense of duty as his controlling impulse and motive power.
C. H. JONES
It is a wide-spread and generally accepted belief that the city, as an abstract entity contains the head and the country the heart of every people. However this may be, it cannot be denied that all cities get the greater part of their heady or brainy forces from the country, either directly or not more than one or two generations removed. Most of the men and women who attain distinction in any line of activity are either themselves from the country, or their parents or grandparents were. Our brightest and most capable business men, for instance, in all our great cities and in most of our smaller ones, have gone from the farm to the counting house or other place of business, either directly or by successive stages of advancement.
A striking illustration of this fact is furnished by the business career of C. H. Jones, the present cashier of the Linn County Bank in Brookfield, and the impelling and directing spirit of all its activities. He was born on his father's farm in Chariton county, Missouri, on February 21, 1868. He was reared to manhood on this farm and began his academic education in the country school in the neighborhood of its location. He afterward attended the State Normal schools at Chillicothe and Stanberry, this state, and commercial schools in both those cities. He finished his commercial training at the Gem City Com- mercial College in Quincy, Illinois, being graduated from that institu- tion, as he was from each of the other business schools which he attended.
Mr. Jones is a son of John H. and Cornelia H. (Tyler) Jones, the
biJones,
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Vermont. The father was a farmer and moved to Illinois in early life. In 1864 he came to Linn county and farmed here one year, then exchanged his residence to Chariton county in 1865, and passed the remainder of his life there, dying on the farm he had cultivated for twenty-two years in 1887. The mother died there in October, 1911. They were the parents of three children, their son, C. H. Jones, and his two sisters. Two of the three are residents of this county.
C. H. Jones began his business career as clerk in a bank at Mendon in his native county, in which he remained a year and a half. He then attended the Chillicothe Normal School for a time. On December 15, 1892, he became a resident of Brookfield and a bookkeeper in the Linn County Bank. On January 1, 1893, he was made a director of the bank and its assistant cashier, and in 1904 was elected to the position in its official force which he now holds, and has filled continuously from that year.
Mr. Jones has given the bank and its affairs his close and careful attention from his first connection with it, but he has not allowed it to engross the whole of his time and energy. His mind is too active in its operations and too comprehensive in its sweep to be satisfied with one interest or line of endeavor. Other avenues to business and social advancement have engaged him, and he has proven a valuable addition to the forces working in them. He is a stockholder in the Linn County Abstract Company and secretary and treasurer of the Brookfield Com- mercial club.
On August 4th, 1898, he was married to Miss Effie A. Moore, the daughter of James A. Moore, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume. They have no children. In fraternal life Mr. Jones is con- nected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is at all times deeply and intelli- gently interested in the progress and improvement of Brookfield and Linn county, and cheerfully does his part in helping to promote their advancement. He is universally regarded as one of Linn county's best and most enterprising and useful citizens.
RICHARD W. CLEMENTS (Deceased)
The late Richard W. Clements, who died on February 16, 1909, after a residence of thirty-two years in Brookfield, was for a long time one of Linn county's leading and most esteemed citizens. In business,
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in public office and in private life he was an ornament to the county and one of its most forceful factors in connection with everything that aided in advancing its progress and improvement. His life among the people of the county was highly useful, and his death was universally regretted by them.
Mr. Clements was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 28, 1842. His parents, Joel W. and Margaret (Lamden) Clements, were also Delawareans by nativity, and lived a long time in their native state. The father was a Methodist Episcopal preacher born in 1807. He came to Missouri in 1870, and lived in Linn county until 1877, when he returned to Delaware, where he died the same year. His widow is still living in that state. She was his second wife. The first bore him three children, and by his last marriage he became the father of fifteen more.
Richard W. Clements, one of the offspring of the first marriage of his father, was reared to manhood in his native state, and began in its public schools the education which he completed by a four year's course at Harvard University. After leaving that institution he farmed for a number of years, then removed to Baltimore, and during the next seven years was in the employ of a large business house as bookkeeper. The year of the Centennial, 1876, was passed by him in Philadelphia. From there he returned to Delaware and engaged in the furniture trade for a few months.
But the East grew wearying to him and he longed for a sight of the great striding West, with its vast breadth of view, its wonderful enterprise, its lofty aims and its great wealth of opportunity, and in August, 1877, he came to Missouri and located in Linn county. For a little while after his arrival he engaged in farming, and after that passed a short period as a clerk in the postoffice in Brookfield. While so engaged he was looking around for an opportunity to go into busi- ness for himself and soon found an opening that he considered promis- ing, as it proved to be.
In 1879 he started an enterprise in the grain trade and milling industry, and this occupied him until his death thirty years afterward, While he conducted the business he built it up to large proportions and great activity, and made it one of the leading mercantile and com- mercial enterprises in this part of the state. He was possessed of fine business capacity, intense energy and a wide knowledge of trade con- ditions, all of which were valuable assets in the expansion of his opera- tions, and his genial manner and obliging disposition won him universal popularity. He was a gentleman of high character and fine social cul-
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ture, and the people of Linn county, and in all other localities in which he was known, recognized his true value and esteemed him accordingly.
Mr. Clements was married in Delaware, on November 20, 1863, to Miss Martha E. Jackson. They became the parents of eleven children, six of whom are living: J. Watson, a successful groceryman; Charles W. and Carroll L., who are partners in the milling business, and a sketch of whom appears in this work; Mabel E., who is living at home with her mother; Harry H., who is engaged in railroading, and Albert R., who is conducting an active grain and coal trade.
Their father was a Democrat and usually gave the candidates of his party hearty and effective support. But in the campaigns of 1896 and 1900 he voted for Mr. Mckinley for president on account of the financial question involved in the contests. He had no desire for public office himself, but did serve eight years as clerk and assessor of Brook- field. He was a member of the Masonic order for many years and exemplified its teaching's in his daily life. He was also a member of K. of P., the Modern Brotherhood of America, the Woodmen of the World, and Knights and Ladies. His religious connection was with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in this also he took great interest and was a zealous and effective worker, serving the congregation to which he belonged many years as one of its stewards. In all the relations of life he was upright and correct, giving everybody who came in contact with him cause for admiration and respect, and standing forth, un- assuming and modest as he was, as one of the best and most representa- tive citizens of the county, a credit alike to the state of his birth and the state of his adoption, and altogether worthy of the universal esteem bestowed on him in both.
JAMES C. TOOEY
The son of one of Brookfield's pioneers, and the present head of the H. Tooey Mercantile Company, which is the outgrowth of a small store starting and kept by his father, that was the first real store in the place, James C. Tooey is entitled to special consideration as a link connecting the present with the past in a particularly interesting way, and the enterprise in industrial, mercantile and commercial life which now dis- tinguishes the city of his home with the dawn of all systematic industry and development on its site.
Mr. Tooey was born in Brookfield on February 2, 1868, when the hamlet contained not many more than twenty scattered houses and as
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many families. He is a son of James and Katherine (McCormick) Tooey, and was reared in the town of his nativity and educated in its primitive public school, as it was in the time of his boyhood. In 1888 he began clerking in the store of his cousin, Henry Tooey, whose life story is briefly told on another page of this volume. He remained with his cousin and in his employ until the death of the latter, when he succeeded him as president of the mercantile company which he had founded a number of years before.
This institution is one of the leading mercantile enterprises in this part of the state and enjoys an extensive trade and a wide popularity.
In politics Mr. Tooey is an unwavering Democrat, zealous in his loyalty to his party, but not an active partisan or in any sense an office- seeker. Fraternally he is connected with the Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the Modern Woodmen of America. His religious affiliation is with the Catholic church. In all these organizations he takes an active interest and a leading part, and his membership in each is highly valued by all who are connected with or interested in them.
On February 18, 1903, Mr. Tooey was united in marriage with Miss Martha Hunter, at the time a resident of the state of New York. They have two children, their daughters Elizabeth C. and Carolyn G., who greatly brighten their homestead and add to its attractiveness for the numerous friends of the family who frequent it, and who find it a center of refined and gracious hospitality and social culture. The parents are energetic and efficient aids in all worthy undertakings for the good of the city and county of their home and are highly esteemed wherever they are known.
HENRY SORNBERGER
In a section of the country in which the spirit of progress and development is as fruitful, energetic and productive as it has been in Linn county and its adjoining neighbors for a number of years of our recent history, a live, wide-awake and resourceful real estate dealer- the man who has or can find something to sell to meet every require- ment, or who can find a market and a purchaser for everything in his line that is up or can be taken up for sale-is a valuable agency in his community and a forceful factor in promoting the substantial welfare and advantage of its people of both classes, those who come and those who go.
Henry Sornberger, of Brookfield, is such a man, and he has been using his ability and his opportunities to the full extent for his own
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advancement, and for the general improvement and development of the region in which he operates, for a number of years. His transactions have been most extensive and fruitful in Linn county, but they have not been confined within its borders. He has been so successful in his opera- tions, and shown such entire mastery of the business in which he is engaged, that his dealings have extended far beyond the boundaries of his own county, and made scores of persons outside of its limits tribu- tary to his enterprise, as well as a much larger number resident in his own territory.
It is not intended in these remarks to belittle the firm of which he is a member, or ignore the work of his partner, Mr. Bailey, for they are worthy of the highest commendation and entitled to full credit and the highest praise. And it is through them that Mr. Sornberger has been able, in large measure, to win his own triumphs. But these paragraphs are devoted specifically to the achievements of Mr. Sornberger, and must deal with them without more than incidental reference to the surround- ings that have made them possible and contributed to their magnitude and success.
Mr. Sornberger is a contribution of the great state of Illinois to the business force of the country. He was born in Streator, in that state, on August 5, 1868, where his parents, Andrew and Susie (Bickerton) Sornberger, were living at the time. The father, who is still living, and is now more than eighty years of age, and one of the patriarchs of Kidder, Caldwell county, this state, was born in the state of New York, and the mother's life began in Newcastle, England. .
The father was a sailor in his young manhood and followed the sea for a number of years, visiting many countries and observing the cus- toms of their people. But for a long time he has been a farmer in the interior of Missouri, undisturbed by the activity of the world outside, and passing without notice the myriad footfalls on the stony pavements of its busy streets, and the showy records it has been seeking to emblazon on the annals of history. He rode the waves of many seas for a time, and as far as human power could do it, helped to command them to the service of mankind. He also engaged in the great and disastrous sectional strife in our country, and did his part to bring it to a conclu- sion serviceable to the interests of our race and promotive of the endur- ing welfare of every clime and tongue in the effort to free human life from chattel slavery.
During our Civil War he served in Company K, Eighty-third Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, in defense of the Union, entering the army in 1862 and leaving it with an honorable record in 1865, when "the war
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
drums throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled." He was at Fort Donelson when that Confederate stronghold surrendered to the superior prowess and equipment of the Federal arms, and with General Thomas in all his heroic operations around Chattanooga. He was often in the very maelstrom of destruction, but he escaped disaster himself, and when his military service was ended, he returned to his former home and resumed the peaceful pursuits in which he had engaged before the war.
The family moved from Illinois to Caldwell county, Missouri, in 1869, and for many years thereafter the father engaged in farming. He has now been living retired from all active pursuits for more than six years. He acts and votes with the Republican party in political affairs, but he is not and never has been desirous of official station for himself. The mother has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church dur- ing the last thirty years. The living children born to them number four. On the father's side the family is of German origin, and its American progenitors were early settlers in the state of New York.
Henry Sornberger came to this state with his parents when he was only about one year old. Here he grew to manhood and was educated, attending the public schools and Kidder Institute in Caldwell county. From 1890 to 1907 he was employed by the Burlington Railroad as agent and telegraph operator along the line, serving four years in Brookfield in this capacity. The long period of his employment by the railroad company passed without one mark of discredit being registered against him. That is the kind of man he has shown himself to be in every engagement he has had and in every relation of life, wherever he has lived.
In 1907 he resigned his position with the railroad company in order to give his attention to the business in which he is now engaged, and in this he has been eminently successful, as has been already intimated. His continued triumph in his undertaking has been due to natural ability developed and quickened by training in other pursuits, and to the clear- ness of vision in seeing and the alertness in seizing and using to the best advantage the opportunities that have been presented to him or found by him in the constant and resourceful activity of his mind.
Mr. Sornberger was married on March 18, 1894, to Miss Emma Lively, of Henry county, Missouri, a daughter of William H. Lively, long a highly respected farmer of that county, but now retired from all active pursuits and living in Henry county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Sornberger have two children, their son Paul A., who was born on September 7, 1896, and their daughter Ofalita M., who
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was born on February 8, 1899. The parents belong to the Presbyterian church in Brookfield, and the father is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
GEORGE W. BAILEY
Having passed the whole of the fifty-six years of his life to this time (1912) in this county, mingling freely in its activities, contributing his portion to its progress and development in several lines of useful- ness, and always, in every way, performing faithfully and wisely the duties of good citizenship, George W. Bailey is well and favorably known in all parts of the county, and richly deserves the firm hold he has on the confidence and regard of all classes of its people. He has been of service to the region in all the lines of endeavor to which he has turned his hand, and has also given it a good example of public spirit and enterprising progressiveness in all that pertains to its welfare.
Mr. Bailey is wholly a product of Linn county. He was born on a farm within its borders, near New Boston, on May 9, 1855. He was reared on its soil and drew from that his stature and his strength. He was educated in its schools, acquired his social tastes and habits from association with its people, and even secured his professional training under the tuition of two of it leading lawyers. Whatever he is, there- fore, he is all Linn county's own, and in his manhood and his record he is a credit to the region of his origin and rearing.
His parents were John G. and Mary (Forest) Bailey, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia. The father was born on a farm near Glasgow, Barren county, in "the dark and bloody ground," in 1818, and a few months afterward the family moved over- land by teams to Missouri, locating in Howard county. There the son of the household grew to manhood, his experiences being nowise differ- ent, perhaps, from those of other boys similarly situated. He helped to redeem a tract of land from the wilderness, attended the primitive schools of the time and locality, enjoyed the sports the frontier afforded, and endured the privations it entailed.
In 1839, when he was twenty-one years old, he moved to Linn county and here improved a farm for himself, as he had helped to improve one for his father, a portion of his land being entered from the government. On this farm he lived all the rest of his days, dying on it in 1897. His wife died there also, her death occurring in 1890. "They had five sons and four daughters who grew to maturity, and of them eight are now living, four of them being residents of Linn county.
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The paternal grandfather, Jacob Bailey, was born and reared in Maryland. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and made a good record as such in that short but decisive contest, which resulted in making our ships and sailors as free on the high seas as the Revolution did our people on land. In his young manhood he moved to Kentucky, and late in life to Missouri. He passed his last years in Linn county, this state, and died here at the advanced age of ninety-eight years.
George W. Bailey was reared on his father's farm and educated in the public schools. After reaching a suitable age he taught school him- self for a number of years, and from 1879 to 1882 was editor and pro- prietor of the Brookfield Chronicle, a Democratic newspaper. In 1882 he began the study of law under the direction of Messrs. Stevens & Smith, of Linneus, and in 1884 he was admitted to the bar. He began practicing at Brookfield, and for twenty-one years was attorney in that city for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, but during that period also kept up his general practice with growing success and patronage, and in addition carried on a flourishing real estate and loan business.
Mr. Bailey now represents the Missouri Savings Bank of Kansas City, and does an extensive business all over Linn county and those that adjoin it on all sides. He was a justice of the peace for five years. But although a firm and faithful adherent of the Democratic party, he has never been desirous of holding office and has never sought any, either by election or appointment. His business has occupied his attention wholly, except wherein he has recognized the claims of citizenship and given time and energy to the duties involved in that. In this respect he has not been to any extent parsimonious, but has freely taken his part and performed his whole service to the city and county of his home in helping to promote every undertaking designed for the progress or improvement of either.
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