USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 56
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On October 12, 1882, Mr. Woollen was united in marriage with Miss Louisa S. Dickhut, a native of Adams county, Illinois, where the mar- riage was solemnized, and is the daughter of Adolph and Augusta (Mis- selwitz) Dickhut, who were born in Germany and are both now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Woollen have three children: Ada M., who is the wife of E. E. Schultz, of this county; Ethel B., who married N. J. Marcum and resides at McClade, in the state of Colorado; and Adolph L., who is still at home with his parents. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church in Meadville, and the father belongs to the Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America in his fraternal relations. The people in all parts of the county know him well and esteem him highly for his estimable traits of character and genuine worth.
HENRY MILLER
After having farmed successfully and profitably for a number of years in Clinton county, Indiana, where he was reared from the age of two years to manhood; and served his country valiantly and faithfully for seven months during the expiring agonies of the Civil War, partic- ipating in the capture of Richmond, the last citadel of the southern Confederacy, which fell when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Henry Miller, now one of the prominent and prosperous farmers of Clay township in this county, again gave fifteen years of effort and fruitful service to the farming industry in the first state of his adoption. But since 1881 he has been a resident of this county, and one of the poten- tial factors in its progress and development subsequent to the time of his arrival here.
Mr. Miller is a native of Ohio, born on May 30, 1840, and the son of Daniel and Susanna (St. Clair) Miller, the former, like himself, a native of Ohio, and the latter born in Pennsylvania. The parents moved to Clinton county, Indiana, in 1842, when their son was two years old, and in that county the father cleared a farm on which the
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family lived until 1881. In that year all the members of the household moved to Linn county, Missouri, and here the parents died, the father in 1883 and the mother in 1896. They had two sons and two daughters, all now deceased but their son Henry and his sister Margaret, who is the widow of Frank Ferguson, and resides in Meadville, Missouri.
Henry Miller obtained a limited common school education in Clinton county, Indiana, the schools of which were of the usual type of the country at the early period of his boyhood. The houses in which they were kept were rudely constructed of hewn logs, and not always hewn, and furnished with slab benches and other primitive appliances for their purposes. Their range and methods of instruction were limited, and their utmost results were meager compared with those of the country schools of today. But even as they were, Mr. Miller had opportunity to attend them only during the winter season for a few years, the circumstances of the family making it necessary for him to do all he could for himself and work whenever he could.
Early in life, before he reached manhood, he began farming on his own account, and he continued his efforts in this line of industry until 1865, when he enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he served seven months and was present at the occupation of Rich- mond, Virginia, by the Union forces, as has been stated. When he received his honorable discharge from the army he returned to his Indiana home, and on December 17, 1868, was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary A. Somsel, who was born in Ohio.
They have two children, their son David, who is a Linn county farmer, and their daughter Susanna, who is now the wife of William H. Somsel and resides in Linn county. In 1881 Mr. Miller brought his family to this county and bought 200 acres of unimproved land, on which he has expended all his time and energy ever since, converting it into the fine farm on which he now lives. He is a Democrat in political relations, but has never been an active partisan or held or sought a public office.
He has, however, given earnest and intelligent attention to the progress and improvement of his township and county, and been of great assistance in making them what they are. Every undertaking of value for their betterment has had his zealous and helpful support, and his services in this behalf are warmly appreciated by the people of every class and condition, and throughout the county he and the mem- bers of his family are held in the highest esteem for their genuine worth and usefulness.
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HUBERT HANSEN
(Deceased)
Although not a native of the United States, the late Hubert Hansen of Brookfield was a resident of this country almost fifty years, and during a considerable portion of the time lived in this county. After reaching manhood he was a car repairer throughout the years of his active labor, except during a short time when he was engaged in farm- ing, and made an excellent record for the high character and great amount of his work when employed at his trade, and for his patriotic and serviceable citizenship at all times. During the last few years of his life he lived retired from all active pursuits, and found great enjoyment in the rest he had so richly earned.
Mr. Hansen was born in Prussia, Germany, on August 14, 1829. He was a son of Mathias and Catherine Hansen, also Germans by nativity and life-long residence, never having left the Fatherland, although frequently urged to do so and come to America by their son after his arrival in the country in 1852. Soon after he reached our shores he located in Galesburg, Illinois, where he found employment at his trade and remained for a number of years. He turned his atten- tion to farming for a short time, but again found his trade more attractive and satisfactory to him, and in 1886 came to Linn county and located in Brookfield, where he worked for the Burlington Railroad until he retired. Here he died on December 16, 1901, aged seventy-two years, and enjoying the respect and confidence of all who knew him for his devotion to the interest of his adopted country, his usefulness as a citizen and his genuine worth as a man.
On June 5, 1856, Mr. Hansen was united in marriage with Miss Mary Kummer, a native of the grand duchy of Luxemburg in Europe, and the daughter of Nicholas and Susanna (Daufield) Kummer, long esteemed residents of that country. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen became the parents of six children, three of whom are living, Elizabeth, Albert and Joseph. Elizabeth and Albert are married and each have children, there being five grandchildren of the Hansen household in the family at the time of this writing (1912).
Mr. Hansen was a progressive and enterprising man, and showed his interest in the welfare and improvement of his home city in the most practical way. In 1888 he put up a large store building in Brook- field, and in 1895 prepared Hansen's addition to the city for the use of the people, plotting it into city lots and giving them ready sale. The addition contains seventy-four acres and has become one of the
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choice residence sections of Brookfield. He also took an earnest inter- est and an active part in local public affairs, although he had no political ambition and was not an active partisan politically. But every worthy undertaking for the progress and development of the community along wholesome lines of growth received his energetic, intelligent and effective support and the stimulus of his good example.
In religion he was a faithful and zealous Catholic, cordial in loyalty to his church and at all times ready to do everything for its benefit he could. In fact, there was no duty in life to which he was unfaithful, or toward which he was negligent. All his activities were impelled by high ideals and directed to practical results of immediate and enduring value, and his course, although neither ostentatious or noisy, was true to the line of strictest rectitude and fruitful in good for everybody who came within its range. The whole people esteemed him highly and he enjoyed in a marked degree their unbounded confi- dence as a craftsman, a useful citizen and a thoroughly upright, hon- orable and enterprising man. And he lived long enough among them for them to have full knowledge of his worth.
JAMES TOOEY (Deceased)
The name and memory of this pioneer of Brookfield is held in ven- eration by the people of the city, not only because he was one of the men who helped to found it and blazed the way for its subsequent progress and development, but also because of the service lie rendered it in all of the forty-six years of his residence in the wilderness as he found it, prosperous and progressive village as he helped to make it, and thriv- ing city as he left it when he departed this life on November 4, 1898.
Mr. Tooey was a native of the Emerald Isle, whose sons and daugh- ters have dignified and adorned every walk in life and made their mark in almost every part of the world, impressing their versatality and mental power on every civilization and contributing light, life and fruit- fulness to every department of human endeavor. He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in March, 1832, and was a son of Augustine and Margrett (Buckley) Tooey, who emigrated from that country to the United States in 1839 and located at Allegany, New York, where the father died in about 1844. The mother died in Linn county in 1859. Our subject was a contractor in railroad construction work and moved about, wherever duty called him, in this country and Canada, until 1852,
JAMES TOOEY
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when he brought his family to Missouri, and founded a permanent home in this state.
He was associated with his brother Patrick Tooey in his contract work, and they helped to build canals as well as railroads, working on the canals mainly in the state of New York. He did everything con- nected with the construction and operation of a canal, even, at one time, driving a mule team on the tow-path in the slow progress of canal boats. An interest in contract work on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road brought him to Missouri, and he worked on that until 1860. In that year he opened the first real store in Brookfield and gave a start to its mercantile life.
Mr. Tooey's store, according to old records, was a two-story frame building, and stood on Brooks street, between Main and Livingston streets. In the first story the store was conducted, and the room above this was used for various purposes, among them the first protestant meeting in the village, which was held there by the congregationalists in the summer of 1863, and the first Sunday school, which was organized there by Ephraim Banning the same season. Mr. Banning acted as superintendent and had about twenty scholars. The books were fur- nished from the East.
Mr. Tooey was also the first postmaster of Brookfield, having been appointed to the office in August, 1860, by President Buchanan. He afterward turned the office over to W. T. Snow, who served as post- master for more than twenty years, but Mr. Tooey continued merchan- dising until 1876. The next year the governor of the state appointed him tax collector for Linn county, the county system of collecting hav- ing just been adopted. At the first election subsequent to his appoint- ment, which occurred in 1878, he was elected to the office for a full term, and at the end of that in 1880 he was re-elected. He continued to fill this office until the county system was abandoned and the township system of collecting taxes was again put in operation, and he made an excellent record in the performance of his official duties, carefully look- ing after the interest of the county, and at the same time avoiding oppressing any of its citizens.
On November 26, 1859, Mr. Tooey was united in marriage with Miss Catherine McCormick, the marriage being solemnized in Hanni- bal. They became the parents of eight children, three sons and five daughters. Two of the sons and three of the daughters are living, the two sons and one of the daughters being residents of Brookfield. Another of the daughters lives at Raton, New Mexico, and the third has her home in Atlanta, Missouri.
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During the Civil War the father belonged to the Home Guards and did his part well in the matter of attending the meetings and drills of the company of which he was a member. In politics he was a firm and faithful member of the Democratic party, active and effective in the service of his party, and for many years one of its leaders in Linn county. His religious connection was with the Catholic church, of which he was a devout and consistent member from his childhood to his death. He was one of the leading men and most representative citizens of Linn county both during his residence at Thayer and after he moved from there to Brookfield, cheerfully bearing his full portion of all pub- lic burdens and giving time, effort and intelligence to the direction of affairs and the aid of all good agencies at work among the people for the advancement and improvement of this part of the state and the most wholesome development and application of its resources. His widow is still living and has her home in Brookfield, where all classes of the people do her reverence as one of their oldest and most estimable citizens, worthy of their esteem from every point of view and enjoying it and their good will in the fullest measure.
EDWIN M. LOMAX
Through a variety of occupations and business engagements, but all tending toward the position he now holds and the duties it involves, Edwin M. Lomax, president of the Linn County Bank of Brookfield, has risen to his present high standing in the business life of Linn county, and by faithful, conscientious and intelligent performance of all the duties of citizenship, including valuable public service for a number of years, he has secured his strong hold on the confidence and esteem of the people and won his widespread and universal popularity.
Mr. Lomax was born on a farm near Laclede on September 30, 1867, and is a son of H. C. and Matilda A. (Turner) Lomax, an account of whose lives will be found in this work. He was educated in the public schools of this county and worked on the farm until he reached the age of seventeen. He then became a clerk in the postoffice under J. W. Lomax, and after giving up that position passed some time in St. Louis. Like several other members of his family, he had a decided taste for the banking business, and when an opportunity came to grat- ify that taste he immediately took advantage of it, and since then he has never sought any other occupation.
In 1886 he entered the Laclede National Bank as a bookkeeper and
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clerk. After serving the institution in that capacity four years he moved to Brookfield to take the position of cashier of the Wheeler Savings Bank, which he filled until 1900. In that year he was chosen vice president of the Linn County Bank, and in 1906 was elected pres- ident of that institution. He has been president of the bank ever since, and it has vastly expanded its business, enlarged its operations and augmented its influence and importance under his management.
The policy he has adopted in the operations of the bank is one of judicious enterprise and wise conservatism united. He makes the institution as liberal toward all public and private interests as he can with due regard to the safety of its depositors and stockholders, car- rying this rule into all departments of the general banking business it conducts, and by this means he has given it such standing that it is everywhere recognized as one of the soundest, safest and most service- able fiscal agencies in this part of the state.
Mr. Lomax has taken an active part in public affairs also and been a potent factor in pushing forward the development and improve- ment of the city and county of his home. He has served as a member of the board of education in Brookfield for twelve years, and in this office rendered such signal and commendable service that the people turned almost as one man to him in looking for a suitable person to be elected mayor of the city in the spring campaign of 1912. He is a Republican in political faith and allegiance, but it was not on this account that he was chosen mayor. It was his high character, his broad intelligence and his often shown cordial and genuine interest in the welfare of the city and its people that induced the electorate to fix on him as the city's chief executive and force the official harness on him. It is quite cer- tain that his course in the office will fully justify the faith expressed in his nomination and election, and that Brookfield will be a great gainer thereby.
In fraternal relations Mr. Lomax is connected with the Masonio Order and the Order of Elks, and in religious faith he is a Presbyterian. While on the school board he served as its treasurer, but every school under the control of the board felt the quickening impulse of his active mind and skillful hand, and is much the better for it. He was married in Brookfield on November 27, 1890, to Miss Essie M. Wanamaker, a native of Linn county and the daughter of Norman E. and Laura A. (Daulton) Wanamaker. One child has blessed the union and bright- ened the family hearthstone, a daughter named Laura Dale.
From every point of view Mr. Lomax shows up strongly as worthy of the highest regard. He is an excellent business man and banker;
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as a public official he has won universal commendation and shown that he deserved it; to his fraternal obligations he is true and faithful, both in the lodges and in his daily life; socially he is complaisant and enter- taining, and in reference to the public interest and welfare he is one of the most zealous and energetic men in the community. He takes an especially deep and helpful interest in the public schools, but in every respect he is one of Linn county's best and most useful citizens.
JAMES T. HAMILTON
Beginning life as a farmer's son, and remaining on the home farm until he reached the age of manhood; then coming to Linn county and serving as railroad agent for three years; after that engaged in mer- cantile life as a grocer for six years, and now one of the leading lumber merchants of this part of the state, James T. Hamilton of Laclede has made his own way in the world from obscurity and very moderate circumstances to consequence and good standing, and has done it by successive stages of advancement, with slow progress at first but always with improvement in his condition.
Mr. Hamilton was orphaned at the age of three years by the death of his father. But he practically never knew that parent at all, as the latter left home when the son was but one year old to seek a fortune for his family in the newly discovered gold fields of California. The care of the infant was then left wholly to the mother, but she did her duty by him faithfully and with every provision for his welfare she was able to make. He returned her devotion with equal fervor, and as soon as he was able gave all the assistance he could in the work of managing and operating the farm.
James T. Hamilton was born in Belmont county, Ohio, on January 24, 1848, and is a son of John F. and Margaret (Graham) Hamilton, the parents being, at the time of his birth well-to-do farmers in the county named. The father was born in New Jersey and moved to Ohio at an early age. About 1843 he was married to the mother, and they began the work of improving their domestic shrine and making provision for the family on the farm they occupied. The father was eager for a rapid advance in his fortunes, and in 1849, when the persuasive voice of California was thrilling the world with its golden music, he found him- self unable to withstand the temptation to join the host of ardent argonauts that was flocking to the new El Dorado. He made the trip by the Panama route, however, and thereby escaped the dangers and
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privations of the long and tiresome journey with teams across the plains. He did not live long after his arrival in California to pros- ecute his search for the wealth he hoped to secure, dying in that state within one year of reaching it, passing away in 1851.
His son James T. was reared on the farm and educated at the dis- trict school in its vicinity. He remained with his mother until he reached the age of twenty-one, then came direct to Laclede in this county, where he has ever since resided. He arrived here in 1869, and during the next three years was employed by the railroad company as its agent in the town. At the end of the period mentioned he turned his attention to mercantile life and opened a grocery store. This he conducted until 1878, when he founded his present extensive lumber business, beginning on a small scale and gradually extending his opera- tions and the volume of his business until it became one of the leaders in the traffic in Linn county.
He also began early to take an interest in public affairs in the county, and as his business prospered and grew his influence with the people and his reputation among them extended to such a degree that in 1884 he was elected county treasurer, and at the end of his first term was re-elected, serving in the office until 1889. He cared more for his business than for public office, however, and when his second term as county treasurer expired, he returned to his lumber trade, and to that he has ever since devoted himself exclusively and with great enterprise and energy.
In 1871, Mr. Hamilton was married to Miss Nannie Edwards, and two children were born of the union, only one of whom is living, Lee E. Hamilton, who is in partnership with his father in the lumber busi- ness at Laclede. His mother died in July, 1882, and her remains were interred in the cemetery in Laclede. In 1884, the father contracted a second marriage in which he was united with Miss Clara Schrock. Two children have followed this marriage also, Mabel and Edith, both of whom are living and still members of the parental family circle. They are ornaments to the social life of their community, and take a cordial interest in everything that helps to promote the enduring welfare of the town and county in which they have their home.
Lee E. Hamilton, the son of the household by the first marriage of its head, came into being in 1873, in Belmont county, Ohio, and was brought to Laclede by his parents the same year. He obtained his edu- cation in the public schools of Linn county and at Brookfield College. Soon after leaving college he was taken into the business of his father as a partner, and he has been very energetic and progressive in helping
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to expand it and advance its interest ever since. He is bright in the business and zealous in his attention to it, and is recognized as one of the most active and enterprising business men in the city.
He was married to Miss Flossie Ratchford of Unionville, Putnam county, Missouri. They have two children, their sons James and Wil- liam. Their father is a Republican in politics, and while he is not a particularly active partisan, his worth has been recognized and he has been called to the public service of the people as township collector and township trustee. He is a devoted member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, which his wife also attends.
ADGATE L. LOOMIS
This prominent, successful and highly esteemed farmer and sheep breeder of Parsons Creek township, this county, has had a varied and interesting career. He was born and reared on a farm in Connecticut, the first representative of the family in this country settled at Windsor, Connecticut in 1638 and put on record a title to land he owned in 1640. His name was Joseph Loomis, and he came to this country from Eng- land and located at Windsor, Connecticut. There he became a man of considerable importance and influence, and took an active part in the affairs of the infant colony which he helped to plant.
The particular branch of the family to which the subject of this brief review belongs continued to reside in Connecticut until 1866, when he came to Missouri. His parents, Anson and Emily (Phillips) Loomis, moved to Missouri in 1877 and with their daughter, Mrs. Abell, took up their residence on a farm in this county near the present town of Meadville. Here the mother died on August 28, 1877, and the father on October 1, 1885. They were the parents of two daughters and three sons, all of whom are living but one, and all of the four who are living are residents of Missouri. The father was a native of Connecti- cut, a farmer in that state, and a member of the state legislature one term. The mother was born in Connecticut also.
The life of their son Adgate began at Lebanon, New London county, Connecticut, on December 4, 1843, and there he grew to the age of eighteen, obtaining his education in the public schools and at Wind- sor Academy. After leaving school he farmed and followed the voca- tion of teacher for a short time. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army in Company C, Eighteenth Connecticut Volunteer Infan- try, and served two years and eight months. His regiment met with
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