USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 38
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CUMMINGS-CUNNINGHAM.
War, but as Missouri's quota had already been filled, the command was not accepted. In the Fortieth General Assembly he served as senatorial revision clerk from the Seven- teenth Senatorial District. Mr. Culbertson's entree into politics occurred in 1896, when his name was presented to the Bates County Democracy as a candidate for the State Leg- islature, but as he was still a student in the State University, he made no canvass for the office. March 31, 1900, he received the nom- ination for prosecuting attorney of Cass County on the Democratic ticket, and at the general election, in November of that year, was chosen to the office. Fraternally he is a Mason, and is also identified with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Wood- men of the World, and the Modern Wood- men of America. In religion he professes no creed, but is guided by the Golden Rule, which he regards as the quintessence of all religion. The strength of character he in- herits from a long line of honorable ancestry has enabled him to overcome many obstacles which to most young men would appear in- surmountable, and the success which he has achieved is due solely to his own efforts. As an orator he possesses rare ability. He is a young man of strict integrity, with a high sense of honor, and even those whose politi- cal views differ widely from those which he entertains, consider him incapable of a dis- honest or unmanly act. That his career in his first public office will be successful and satisfactory to the public is anticipated by all, and his future political preferment de- pends solely upon his own wishes in the mat- ter. February 20, 1901, Mr. Culbertson was married to Miss Josephine Parsons, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Parsons, of Harrisonville, Missouri, one of the pioneer families of that place. Miss Parsons, though only twenty-one years of age at the time of her marriage to Mr. Culbertson, was consid- ered one of the most refined, accomplished, talented and popular girls in Cass County. She is especially gifted and cultivated in music, and delights in good books, but is also very fond of outdoor sports, like tennis, golf and horseback riding. For years she has taught a class in the Baptist Sabbath school, and is much more of a church girl than what is commonly known as a "society girl." She is devotedly ambitious for her husband.
Cummings, Frank M., lawyer, was born August 8, 1873, in Evansville, Indiana, son of William R. and Maria J. (Cassidy) Cummings, both natives of the same State. His father's family emigrated from Indiana to Kentucky, and his mother's family from Pennsylvania. Mr. Cummings was educated at Evansville, Indiana, his school days end- ing when he was fourteen years of age. He then began taking care of himself and worked first as collector on a mail line wharf- boat on the Ohio River, at Evansville. Taking up the study of stenography, he com- pleted it in six months, and then became a clerk for William Field & Co., grain mer- chants of Evansville. This position he re- signed to accept a clerkship in the office of the superintendent of the Louisville & Nash- ville Railroad Company, at that place. Some time later he was promoted to a better posi- tion in the office of the general freight agent of the same road, and this position he re- signed to accept a clerkship with Charles Leich & Co., wholesale druggists of Evans- ville. Six months later he was made private secretary to Captain Lee Howell, general freight agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and this position he filled for about six years. Tiring then of an employe's place, and longing for a more independent life, he resigned his private secretaryship in 1897 and entered the law department of Indiana University, from which he was graduated in June of 1899. Immediately afterward he lo- cated in southwest Missouri, and began the practice of his profession in Carterville. He has not been an active politician, but is a member of the Democratic party, in thor- ough sympathy with its plans and purposes. His fraternal affiliations are with the Delta Tau Delta Greek Letter Society, and the Court of Honors.
Cunningham, Edward, Jr., lawyer, was born August 21, 1841, in Cumberland County, Virginia, son of Edward and Cather- ine (Miller) Cunningham. He was educated at Virginia Military Institute of Lexington, and when nineteen years of age became a professor in that institution. He was filling this position when the Civil War began, and left the institute with the famous corps of cadets which became a part of the original command of the great military chieftain, Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson.
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June 4, 1864, he was commissioned major of artillery and served until the final surren- der of the Confederate forces at Shreveport, June 7, 1865. In the year 1872 he came to St. Louis. He has the sincerity and courtli- ness of the old-time Virginian, and his high character and abilities have commended him to his professional brethren and the general public. He married, in 1876, Miss Cornelia Thornton, of Virginia.
Cunningham, George Pierson, who is widely known in southwestern Missouri as an operator in real estate and mining prop- erties, was born April 21, 1839, at Wheeling, West Virginia. His parents were John Pier- son and Elizabeth (McCune) Cunninghanı. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish parentage; he was a physician, and died in 1890. The mother was of Irish descent ; she died in 1888. Both died in Jop- lin. The son was afforded but meager edu- cational opportunities, his entire school attendance being limited to nine months in a country school, near his native town. When he was fourteen years of age his par- ents removed to Illinois, where he engaged in farming near Watseka. With an ambition to improve himself, as his controlling pas- sion, he devoted himself to a self-appointed course of study, and with such success that at the age of eighteen years he took charge of a school at Ashkum, in Iroquois County, and taught successfully for two years, leaving it to take a larger school at Pickaway, in the same county, where he was engaged for two years longer. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Twentieth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, under the first three- months call, and upon the expiration of this period of service re-enlisted as a member of Battery D, of the First Illinois Artillery Regiment. This was the famous McAllister Battery, which received the first Confederate assault in the bloody battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862. His service with this command included all of General Grant's operations in Tennessee and Mississippi, culminating in the capture of Vicksburg ; and all of General Sherman's campaigns, comprising the oper- ations about Atlanta, and the march to the sea. July 28, 1865, he was mustered out at Chicago, with the rank of captain. Shortly after his discharge from the army, at the close of the war, he went to Atchison County,
where he was appointed deputy clerk by James M. Pendleton, county and circuit clerk. In February of the following year (1866) he removed to Carthage, Missouri, where he engaged in business as a real estate agent and broker. When general attention was attracted to Joplin as a mining center he made investments in that city, and followed the same calling, making a specialty of min- ing properties. He continues to be so en- gaged, having resided in Joplin since June, 1898, and his intimate knowledge of the en- tire Joplin mineral belt, and of mining opera- tions, has given him high position as an authority in these matters, and the utmost confidence is reposed in his judgment. In poli- tics he is a Republican of the old-time Lin- coln school, but in the new issues which have arisen, and the new policies which have been inaugurated, he discerns little semblance of former great principles or practices, and holds to absolute independence in his politi- cal affiliations and actions. He has never been ambitious of public distinction, and has held but one office, that of clerk of the Dis- trict School Board, which he accepted solely on account of his interest in educational af- fairs. In religion he is a Presbyterian. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic, but has never consented to hold an office in any of these bodies. Mr. Cunningham was first married, May 8, 1872, to Miss Wilma E. Neely, of Muncie, Indiana, who died some years later. Of this union three children were born, of whom one died in infancy. Those living are Wilma E., wife of W. E. Ford, superintendent of the American Lead and Zinc Company, a large operating corpo- ration, having its headquarters at Joplin ; and Edwin N., superintendent of extensive mines at Centre Creek. August 13, 1882, Mr. Cun- ningham married Miss Grace L. Hobbs, of Chicago. Of this union there are no chil- dren. He gives earnest personal attention to all matters pertaining to real estate, and in mining affairs, particularly, his knowledge of existing conditions makes him a most ca- pable adviser.
Cunningham, John W., clergyman, was born at Leitchfield, Kentucky, June 12, 1824. His parents, William and Susan Cun- ningham, came to Kentucky from Virginia in the previous century, in their teens, with their
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CUPPLES-CURRENCY OF THE PIONEERS.
parents. He acquired an English education through years of tutorage in the log school- house of his nativevillage and several months in the Green River High School at Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was four years in a store at Elizabethtown, where he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and at Bowling Green he became a member of the Kentucky Conference in September, 1844. He spent two years as junior preacher on a circuit in Mason and Bracken Counties. In May, 1845, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized, and next to Bishop Andrew he was the first to declare adherence to that organization, which he did in response to the written demand of a board of trustees in the Methodist Church in the town of Augusta, June 1, 1845. He spent twenty-five years in the itinerant ministry in the Kentucky and Louisville Conferences in different sections of the State, but chiefly in counties, towns and cities bordering on the Ohio River. January 1, 1866, he became editor of the Kentucky Department of the "St. Louis Christian Advocate," and served till September, 1869, when he removed to Missouri, and was pastor six years north of the Missouri River. In 1875 he retired by location from the Missouri Conference, has since lived in St. Louis, and has served as occasion required as a local preacher. He has written much for church papers and some for the secular, and has developed a taste for historic writing. In 1886 he was invited by the editor of the "Memorial History of Louis- ville" to write the history of Methodism in Louisville for that book. He had been absent from Kentucky twenty-seven years, yet he wrote.the history as requested, and it is part of one of the two large Memorial volumes. He is the author also of the article on "Methodism," published in the "Encyclo- pedia of the History of Missouri."
Cupples, Samuel, merchant and man- ufacturer, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsyl- vania, September 13, 1831, son of James and Elizabeth Cupples. When he was fifteen years old he came west as far as Cincinnati, Ohio, and there entered the employ of Albert O. Tyler, one of the pioneer woodenware merchants of the West. In 1851 he was sent to St. Louis to establish a branch wooden- ware house in that city, and this business, as originally organized, was conducted under
the name of Samuel Cupples & Co. In 1856 he purchased the interests of his associates in this enterprise and conducted it alone until 1858, when Mr. Thomas Marston became associated with him under the firm name of Cupples & Marston. At the end of a pros- perous career a dozen years in length, this firm was dissolved to be succeeded by the firm of Samuel Cupples & Co. In 1883 this copartnership was in turn succeeded by the Samuel Cupples Woodenware Company, of which Mr. Cupples became president, a position which he still retains. Around this have clustered many other enterprises which have contributed in no small degree to the growth and prosperity of the city, chief among which have been the St. Louis Ter- minal Cupples Station & Property Company, the Samuel Cupples Paper Bag Company, and the Samuel Cupples Envelope Company. Mr. Cupples has been a generous donor to Washington University, at St. Louis.
Currency of the Indians .- Wam- pum was the currency which the first white settlers at St. Louis found in use among the Indians. It consisted of cylindrical pieces of the shells of testaceous fishes, a quarter of an inch long and of the diameter of a pipe-stem. Holes drilled through these shells enabled the Indians to string them upon a thread, and as currency these strings of beads were valued according to length. A fathom or belt of wam- pum consisted of three hundred and sixty beads, and the belts were worn as jewelry as well as used as currency. The beads were of two kinds, one white and the other black or dark purple. Those of a white color were rated at half the value of the dark ones, and in early transactions between the Indians and English traders white beads passed as the equivalent of a farthing. The early settlers at St. Louis, in trading with the Indians for furs and peltries, sometimes used wampum, but it was soon succeeded by a peltry cur- rency, which had a more substantial value.
Currency of the Pioneers .- "Fur was the currency of St. Louis from the days of Laclede very nearly until Missouri became a State and the town an incorporated city. Other things were taken in exchange and barter-beeswax, whisky, potash, maple sugar, salt, wood, feathers, bear's oil, venison, fish, lead-but fur was the currency and the
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CURRENT RIVER-CURTIS.
standard of value, the representative of and equivalent to the 'livre tournois' of hard metal. The only small coin consisted of Mexican dollars, cut with a chisel into pieces -'bits.' A pound of shaved deerskin of good quality represented about twice the value of the livre, and a pound of beaver, otter and ermine represented so many pounds of deerskin. A 'pack' of skins had a definite weight, and thus trade and computation were both easy. Checks and notes were drawn against them, deposits were made of furs and packs, and on the whole they constituted a much better and more uniform currency than the staple tobacco, which was at one time the only circulating medium of Virginia and Maryland. 'Bons' were a species of order or note for goods, redeemable in peltries, which, when signed with the name of any responsible merchant or trader, had full currency in local and general trade. Prac- tically they were certificates of deposit, but convertible or exchangeable into any other equivalents in the course of trade and barter. Next to the peltry, which had a regular cur- rency and pretty near a uniform value from Mackinaw, Detroit and Prairie du Chien among the French settlements all the way to New Orleans and the Balize, the best medium of certain value, but only a limited circula- tion, was the 'carot' of tobacco. . .. The carots had a definite weight, like the packs of furs, and their usual value was about two livres. . . Spanish coin never affected the fur currency. The Spanish government paid off its officers and troops in hard dollars, but this was a mere drop in the bucket-less than $12,000 a year for St. Louis. Even after the transfer to the United States peltry con- tinued the controlling currency for a num- ber of years."-(Scharf's "History of St. Louis.")
Current River .- A stream which has its head waters in two branches, one of which, Jack's Fork, rises in Texas County, the other, the main stream, heading in Dent County, the two uniting in Shannon County, and flowing through Carter and Ripley Counties and entering Black River in Pocahontas County, Arkansas. Current River has a length of one hundred and twenty miles, and is remarkable for the picturesque scenery along its banks.
Currentview .- A village in Ripley County, ten miles south of Doniphan, on the Arkansas-Missouri State line. It has a flouring and planing mill, a hotel and large general store. Previous to the war, the town was called Buckskull. Population, 1899 (estimated), 200.
Curryville .- An incorporated town in Pike County, on the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, nine miles west of Bowling Green. It was laid out by Perry A. Curry in 1867, and was incorporated in 1874. It has two public schools, one church, a bank, flouring mill, a hotel, and about a dozen stores. Population, 1899 (estimated), 350.
Curtesy .- A law term defining the title to the life interest which a man has in the lands owned by his wife. There must have been a child born alive of the marriage to create the interest. In Missouri, the law gives to the husband a life interest in the lands of his wife, if the child survive her. If there be no children born of the marriage, nor other descendants, he is entitled to one- half the estate absolutely, and if a child was born of the marriage, to the use of the other half of the real estate she owned during the marriage.
Curtis, Samuel R., soldier, and com- mander of the Department of Missouri, in the Civil War, was born in New York in 1807, and died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, De- cember 26, 1866. He entered West Point from Ohio, and graduated in 1831, but re- signed his position in the army the following year to take the superintendency of the im- provement works on the Muskingum River. Afterward, he studied law and practiced in Ohio from 1841 to 1846, when he was ap- pointed adjutant general to organize the Ohio troops for the Mexican War, in which he served as colonel of the Second Ohio, and also a Governor of Saltillo. In 1849 he came to St. Louis, and in 1850 was appointed by Mayor Kennett, city engineer, serving witlı credit to the end of the term. In 1855 he removed to Keokuk, and in 1857, was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1859, and again in 1861, but resigned in his third term to become colonel of the Second Iowa Volun- teers in the Civil War. In August, 1861, he
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CURTIS-CUSTOMHOUSE AT ST. LOUIS.
was commissioned brigadier general, and as- signed to the United States camp of instruc- tion at Benton Barracks, St. Louis. In December he was placed in command of southwest Missouri, and on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March, 1862, fought and won the battle of Pea Ridge, in which the Confederate Army, varionsly estimated at twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand men, under Van Dorn, was defeated and forced to aban- don the field, retreating to Van Buren, Arkansas. For this victory he was made major general of volunteers. He marched his army through Arkansas without opposi- tion to Helena, which place he occupied and held in the summer of 1862. The movement made by him from Lebanon, Missouri, on the Ioth of February, through Springfield and Cassville, Missouri, and through Arkansas to the Mississippi River at Helena, defeat- ing the Confederate Army in a great battle on the way, was of great value to the Union cause, in the two States of Missouri and Arkansas, as it not only secured southwest Missouri, but secured also the important position of Helena which was held to the end of the war. In September, 1862, he was placed in command of the Department of Missouri, and held the position till May, 1863, when he was assigned to the Depart- ment of Kansas, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. In the fall of 1864, when General Price made the last Confederate in- vasion of Missouri, General Curtis con- fronted and resisted him in the western part of the State, and in the battle of Westport inflicted'such losses on him that he was com- pelled to turn to the South and retreat to- ward Arkansas.
Curtis, William S., dean of the St. Louis Law School, was born June 19, 1850, in Wayne County, Indiana. He obtained his early education at Hennepin, Illinois, and at Troy, Ohio, and later attended McKendree College of Illinois, and Washington Univer- sity of St. Louis. He was graduated from Washington University with the degree of bachelor of arts in the class of 1873, and from the St. Louis Law School in the class of 1876. During intervals in his college course he taught school at various places, and for sev- eral years after his graduation was a teacher in Smith Academy, one of the schools of Washington University, and also taught logic
and political economy in the University. In 1884 he removed to Omaha, Nebraska, and began the practice of law in that city, contin- uing it for ten years thereafter, and until he was made dean of the St. Louis Law School, in 1894. Since that time he has been at the head of one of the leading law schools of the West, and has become recognized as a law educator and lecturer of very superior attain- ments.
Customhouse in Kansas City .- Kansas City became a port of entry in 1882, R. C: Crowell, now (1899) a customhouse broker, being the first surveyor of the port. His successors have been James Burns, in January, 1886; Ross Guffin, in January, 1890; Scott Harrison, in November, 1893; Milton Welsh, in August, 1894, and W. L. Kissinger, in June, 1898. There are five deputies in the office and two storekeepers in charge of the two bonded warehouses. The receipts are about $200,000 per annum. One of the largest articles of import is English salt re- quired for curing meats for export. The amount of customs duties does not show the amount of importations, for many of the im- porters have agents at the exterior ports who clear their merchandise at those points.
Customhouse at St. Louis .- St. Louis was made a port of entry for imported goods in 1831, and John Smith was made the first surveyor of customs, but there was no building owned by the Federal government in the city, and the surveyor of customs held his office in rented buildings until the year 1859, when the first customhouse, erected on the corner of Third and Olive Streets, was occupied, and the various Federal offices in the city were moved into it. The postoffice occupied the first floor, and the larger por- tion of the basement of this building; the United States Sub-Treasury was in the rear basement room at the corner of Olive Street and the alley; the office of the surveyor of customs was in the front part of the second floor, and the United States courts were held in the rear. Twenty years later it was mani- fest that the city had outgrown the capacity of this building, and that a much more spacious edifice would have to be built fur- ther west. Accordingly, in 1872, the block bounded by Olive and Locust, and Eighth and Ninth Streets, was purchased and the
Vol. II-14
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erection of the present building begun, under the supervision of the government super- vising architect, A. B. Mullett. In 1888 the edifice was completed and taken possession of, all the Federal offices being moved into it. The building, officially known as the United States Customhouse, occupies the entire block, the dimensions being 232 feet on Olive and on Locust Streets, and 177 feet on Eighth and Ninth Streets, with a height of 184 feet to the top of the cupola that surmounts it. The basement is twenty-one and a half feet deep, and is two stories high, constructed of red granite. The body of the edifice above ground is built of Maine granite. Two porti- coes, one above the other, adorn the two fronts on Olive Street and Eighth Street, and in the interior there is a noble and spacious staircase ascending to the attic, with elevators in addition. The postoffice occupies the en- tire first floor, having an underground railway connection with the Union Station, for the easy and prompt conveyance of postal matter to and from railway trains. Along the Olive Street front of the second floor are the cus- toms offices, including the surveyor of cus- toms-who is custodian of the building- special agents, assistant custodian, revenue agents and operator of the secret service. On the Ninth Street corridor are the subtreas- ury, and office of inspector of steamboats, and lighthouse inspector. On the Locust Street corridor are the offices of postoffice inspector and pension examiner. On the Eighth Street corridor is the office of the collector of internal revenue. On the third floor, on Olive Street, are the United States Circuit Court and the United States District Court ; on the Ninth Street front the United States District Court clerk, and witness room; on Locust Street is the office of the United States marshal; on Eighth Street are the United States district attorney and the United States circuit clerk. On the fourth floor, on Ninth Street, are the United States grand jury rooms and offices of the railway mail service; and on the Locust Street front are the rooms of the United States engineers. The dome is occupied by the weather bureau. In the basement, on Ninth Street, are the offices of the appraiser, and surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital. The custom- house deals only with foreign goods im- ported into St. Louis. These goods may be brought to any outside port of entry, as New
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