USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 47
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terest, $4,303 ; for all county purposes, $23,- 796. DeKalb County has no county nor township bonded debt. At the present time there are nine townships in DeKalb County, named respectively, Adams, Camden, Colfax, Dallas, Grand River, Grant, Polk, Sherman and Washington. The population of DeKalb County in 1900 was 14,418.
Delap, Silas Charles, ophthalmolo- gist, was born July 26, 1846, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were John and Anna Maria (Yeatts) Delap, farm people, and natives of the same State in which they reared their family. The father was a son of Leonard Delap, a soldier in the War of 1812. Of the children of John and Anna Maria Delap, four sons became teachers, and of this number two subsequently entered the medical profession. Silas Charles was edu- cated in the common schools, and in the Millersville (Pennsylvania) State Normal School, now known as the First Pennsylvania State Normal School ; he was graduated from the latter institution in both the teachers' and scientific courses, receiving first the de- gree of bachelor of science and afterward the degree of master of science. For some years following he read medicine under the tutor- ship of Dr. J. H. Marsden, an accomplished practitioner, and a favorably known author on professional subjects, at York Sulphur Springs, Pennsylvania. This education, and his subsequent instruction in medical schools, young Delap secured through his own effort, paying his own educational expenses out of money earned in teaching, and at the same time establishing such high reputation as an educator that he was tempted to adopt that as his profession. Beginning as teacher in a district school when he was nineteen years of age, he taught in more important schools in New Oxford and Media, and in normal schools in Millersville and Indiana, in Penn- sylvania, in the last named institution occu- pying the chair of natural sciences. Having removed to Kansas, he continued his medical studies, and at the same time served as pro- fessor of natural science in the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia, and taught in various teachers' institutes. His medical education was thorough. In 1880 he was graduated from the homeopathic medical de- partment of the Iowa State University; in 1884-5 he took a course in the New York
Ophthalmic Hospital, and in the latter year a course also in the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital, and in 1885-6-7 a full course in the Philadephia Polyclinic, and in the Wills Eye Hospital at Philadel- phia. After his first graduation he practiced for one year at Emporia, Kansas, and for nine years following in Trinidad, Colorado, where he devoted the last four years largely to ophthalmology, abandoning the general prac- tice. In 1889 he located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has established a large practice, and made for himself a high reputa- tion as a leader in ophthalmological science in the Missouri Valley. His prominence in this department is attested in the conspicuous positions to which he has been called. For some years he was in charge of eye and ear treatment in the Institute for the Blind, at Wyandotte, Kansas; for ten years past he has been professor of ophthalmology, otology and laryngology in the Kansas City Homeo- pathic Medical College, and for three years president of the board of trustees, and for seven years the president of the building company of the same institution. He is a member of the American Institute of Home- opathy, of the Missouri Institute of Homeop- athy, of the Missouri Valley Homeopathic Medical Association and of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of Kansas. He has delivered various addresses before these bodies, and has contributed to the principal scientific journals. His principal literary work has been for the "Medical Arena," a high class journal which he has edited with distinguished ability from its institution in 1892 to the present time. To all his duties, whether in treatment of patient, as instructor in college, or in editorial labor, his effort is characterized by sincere conscientiousness, and at the same time a genuine undemon- strative enthusiasm which commands respect and confidence. Dr. Delap was married July 26, 1875, to Miss Marian Kennedy, of New London, Pennsylvania. She was daughter of the Rev. William Kennedy, a Methodist clergyman ; she was a graduate of the Mans- field (Pennsylvania) State Normal School, and of the National School of Elocution and Oratory at Philadelphia. She died Novem- ber 7, 1894, leaving two sons, Darwin and Harold, both, at the present time (1900), students in the Kansas City Manual Train- ing School, the former in the junior class and
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the latter in the freshman class. Dr. Delap was again married, December 24, 1896, to Miss Louise, daughter of Captain Arnold Sutermeister, who commanded a battery under General Sherman during the Civil War, and is now a stone contractor in Kansas City. Mrs. Delap is a highly cultured lady ; she was graduated from the Albany Library School, of Albany, New York, and has filled positions in the libraries in Wellesley Col- lege, Massachusetts, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was librarian of the city library at Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Delassus .- A village in St. Francois Township, in St. Francois County, two and a half miles from Farmington, on the Bel- mont branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad. It was laid out in 1869 by A. D. Delassus. It has a few stores, a hotel and school. Population, 250.
Delassus, Charles Dehault .- Last of the Lieutenant Governors under Spanish domination at St. Louis, was born in Bouchaine, in what was then the Province of Hainault, in 1764. His ancestors were of the French nobility, and he was favored by fortune in early life. In 1782 he entered the Spanish military service as a cadet in the Royal Regiment of Guards, of which the king of Spain was colonel. He gained promotion by his gallantry, and for distinguished serv- ices as a captain of grenadiers in the assault on Fort Elmo, in the Pyrenees, he was made lieutenant colonel of his regiment in 1793. In 1794 he became commander of a battalion of the king's bodyguard at Madrid, but by reason of the fact that his father had been driven from France, and had found refuge in Louisiana, he appealed to the king to be transferred to New Orleans. He was accord- ingly sent thither with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the "Stationary Regiment of Lou- isiana," and in 1796 was appointed to the command of the post at New Madrid by Gov- ernor Carondelet. In 1799, by order of the Spanish government at Madrid, he was com- missioned Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, and entered at once upon the dis- charge of his official duties. His administra- tion of affairs gave general satisfaction, and he was in all respects one of the ablest and most popular of the provincial Governors. It devolved upon him to surrender the territory
to the commissioner designated by the French government to receive it, preparatory to turning it over to the government of the United States, and he discharged this duty with fidelity to his own government, and with a grace and courtesy very pleasing to those to whom he surrendered his authority. After surrendering his office he remained in St. Louis until the autumn of 1804. He then re- turned to New Orleans and was ordered from there to Pensacola, Florida, headquarters of his regiment. Later he went to Baton Rouge, and remained there until 1810, when he re- signed his commission and went to New Orleans. In 1816 he returned to St. Louis, and lived near the village for ten years there- after. He returned to New Orleans at the end of that time, but revisited St. Louis in 1836. He died in New Orleans, May 1, 1842.
Delta Kappa Epsilon .- The Missis- sippi Valley Alumni Association of this Greek Letter Society was organized in St. Louis, June 18, 1892. It is composed of men who were members of this fraternity during their college days, who have fond recollections of their associations in that connection and de- sire to keep in touch with the organization. In 1898 there were sixty-five members of the alumni association, many of whom were elderly men, prominent in business and pro- fessional life. Annual meetings of the asso- ciation are held.
Delzell, William David, physician, farmer and legislator, was born July 4, 1844, in that part of Greene County, Missouri, of which Webster County was afterward formed, son of Andrew D. and Elizabeth Sayers Delzell. His father was born in Blount County, Tennessee, on the 4th of November, 1818, and was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, whose labors began when he was twenty-one years of age, and continued until within a short time of his death, at the age of seventy-one. His wife, the mother of Honorable Wm. D. Delzell, who is still living, was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, May 23, 1821, and is the daughter of William Cecil Sayers, who was born in 1801.
The Delzell family was sprung from a union of sturdy pioneer families of Virginia and Tennessee, Dr. Delzell's grandfather hav- ing been born in Blount County, Tennessee,
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Alexander N. DE Menil.
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and his grandfather on his mother's side, William C. Sayers, was born July 4, 1795, in Tazewell County, Virginia, whose father, John Sayers, served with gallantry in the Revolutionary Army, as likewise did another maternal ancestor, William Spraddon, who was killed at the battle of King's Mountain, in 1780.
Dr. Delzell obtained his education by dili- gent and persistent personal application and in the public schools of Greene County, where he taught successfully from 1868 to 1874, giving his attention in the meantime to the study of medicine, and received his M. D. degree from the St. Louis Medical College in 1877. His medical practice in Webster and surrounding counties was signally successful and secured for him both wealth and honor; and, in 1893, he retired to his splendid farm in the south- western part of Webster County, where he has 1,000 acres of land, and devoted his atten- tion mainly to farming and stock-raising, which he has since followed with character- istic vim and enterprise.
In 1898 he was elected a Representative in the Fortieth General Assembly of Missouri, where his rugged integrity and sturdy self- reliance found full play in behalf of strict economy in the expenditure of public money, and in unalterable antagonism to corporate greed and the debasing influence of a corrupt lobby. No member gave closer attention to the business of the session, or performed his work with a more conscientious devotion to duty, as is shown by the fact that he missed but a single roll call during that long and memorable session. He was the author of several important measures that bore a healthy moral tone, and continuously urged the enactment of laws that would reduce and equalize the burden of taxation, and inure to the general welfare of all the people.
In politics he is a Jeffersonian Democrat and in religious belief a Cumberland Presby- terian. A member of the Masonic order, he has, for years, served as master of Hender- son Lodge, No. 477. January 8, 1875, Dr. Delzell married Miss Sarah Thompson, daughter of William Thompson, Esq., of Greene County, Missouri. Mrs. Delzell's mother, whose maiden name was Malinda Earnest, was a native of Greene County, Ten- nessee. Six of seven children born to Dr. and Mrs. Delzell are now living.
De Menil, Alexander Nicolas, edi- tor and publisher, was born in St. Louis, Mis- souri, March 23, 1849. His father, Nicholas N. De Menil, physician, was a native of Foug, France, and emigrated to St. Louis in 1834, where he died in 1882. His mother was Emilie Sophie Chouteau, granddaughter of Pierre Chouteau, who, with Laclede, founded St. Louis. His great-grandfather was Nicolas Nicolas, Baron de Menil, who, like many of the French nobility, renounced his title and espoused the cause of the republic. The family is related by marriage to the La- fayettes, La Paillottes, Creamiers, and other historic families of France; it furnished several officers to the cause of the Colonists in the American struggle for independence, among others Baron Vio-Menil, Rocham- beau's lieutenant. Alexander N. De Menil was educated chiefly at the Academy of the Christian Brothers, and at Washington Uni- versity, St. Louis. From these colleges and from Central University, Indiana, he received the degrees of bachelor and master of science, master of arts, bachelor of laws, doctor of literature, and doctor of philos- ophy. Almost his whole life, spent entirely in St. Louis, has been devoted to study. From 1871 to 1882 he practiced law, and during this period and later had some aspira- tions in the way of politics. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1877, the only Democrat ever attaining that distinction in the Eleventh Ward. In 1879 he was elected to the municipal council by the city at large, in which body he made an honorable record, being the author of some of the most useful ordinances. In 1893 he was, however, de- feated for the Democratic nomination for mayor, but, with four candidates he received the second highest vote. Although essen- tially a student, with strong literary tastes and aptitudes, for a quarter of a century he has in various ways worked for the success of the Democratic party. Politics and litera- ture, together with the fact of having to manage a large property, had the effect of pushing the pursuit of the law to the rear, and in 1882 he abandoned it. Almost since boyhood he has been a contributor to Sunday newspapers, literary papers, magazines and reviews. For many years he has himself conducted St. Louis magazines, and is now editor of "The Hesperian," a publication of
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high standing, particularly as a literary re- view. Dr. De Menil has for several terms served as orator and grand orator, Ancient Order of United Workmen; colonel and lieutenant colonel of Select Knights; presi- dent and vice president of the French Na- tional Fete Association and Society of the Fourteenth of July; president of the Ameri- cus, the Irving, and other literary and philosophical societies, the Western Authors' Club-representing several Western States, the French Benevolent Society, the French Club of St. Louis, and many others. He has also been a director in several insurance and building companies.
Here is, indeed, a bright record to be achieved in a short lifetime, and one seldom written of a man of wealth. To be "one of the ablest literary critics of the West," as the Boston "Courier" has said of him, echoed in similar terms by the "Twentieth Century Review," is praise not often gained by men who are not obliged to delve for a livelihood. Dr. De Menil has not only reached fame in the literary field, but as a lawyer he was sagacious, as a legislator useful, and in busi- ness has shown extraordinary shrewdness. He is a prominent member of the Missouri Historical Society and of the "Louisiana Cen- tennial" committee of two hundred.
Dr. De Menil has been twice married, his second wife being a daughter of Colonel George A. Bacon, of Carlyle, Illinois. He has two children: Henry Nicolas, born in 1879, graduated at the Wentworth Military Academy in 1898; and George Shelley, born in 1890.
De Menil, Nicolas N., physician, was born October 7, 1812, in Foug, Department of the Meurthe, France. At a very early age he proceeded to the city of Paris, and went into the chemical establishment of Dubois, the celebrated French chemist. Later he attended what is called in France L'Ecole Imperiale de Medecine-the govern- ment school of medicine. He graduated with distinction and entered the army medical staff with the rank of lieutenant, and was stationed for some time with the army at Metz.
He left Europe for the United States on February 25, 1834, and landed at New Or- leans, where he remained some months, and
came to St. Louis, June 28, 1834. After arriving in St. Louis he practiced medicine for some years, but gave up active practice for the purpose of starting a large drug store, and in the preparation of chemicals he made the money which was the foundation of a considerable fortune. Two of the clerks in the business were Con. and James Maguire, of Maguire Brothers.
Just before the Civil War the subject of this sketch gave up business and devoted his time to looking after his large property in- terests. He married, on October 18, 1836, Miss Emilie Sophie Chouteau, daughter of Colonel A. P. Chouteau. Mrs. De Menil died in 1874. They had but one child, the Honorable A. N. De Menil. (See "De Menil, Alexander N.")
Dr. De Menil was never in public life. He desired no notoriety, but went about his busi- ness in a quiet, unassuming manner, was very successful, and was perfectly contented to remain at home and enjoy the comforts of a happy domestic life. When he came to this country he had no means, and by his own industry and economical way of living at first amassed the considerable amount of property which the public records show that he was the possessor of. He was a man who never had any debts, but paid everything as he went along. Judge Jno. M. Krum, standing by his coffin, remarked : "He was one of the most honest, upright and conscientious men I ever knew; there are few like him," and the senti- ment represented the belief of every one. who knew Dr. De Menil. He was not a mem- ber of any order, but years ago was a mem- ber of the French Benevolent Aid Society, and was its first president. He was re- elected several times, and made an honorary president for life, on account of his many noble gifts to the society. He did not take an active part in the society, but paid in his liberal subscriptions with the utmost regular- ity. He did not attend the meetings, because he seldom went out to public gatherings. He loved his home, and had a great many friends among the older residents of the city. He read much, and was highly educated, especially in science and philosophy. Dr. De Menil traced his family back to Auguste Nikolaus, created Baron de Menil, under Clotaire II., in 623. During the French Revolution the family lost all its possessions in Lorraine.
Two H. Dennis
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DEMOCRATIC CLUBS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION-DENNIS.
Democratic Clubs, National Asso- ciation of .- For the purpose of bringing about concerted and harmonious action of the various clubs organized in the interest of the Democratic party, the National Associa- tion of Democratic Clubs was organized, about the year 1890, by Chauncey F. Black, of Pennsylvania, who became first president of the organization. Democratic campaign clubs organized in all parts of the United States have become a part of the national association, in which they have representa- tion through regularly appointed delegates. In 1898 there were 250 of these clubs in Missouri, and at one time there were 156 clubs in St. Louis. The National Conven- tion of Democratic Clubs was held in St. Louis in 1896.
Demond, John, a merchant, of St. Joseph, was born near Coblentz, Germany, March 28, 1833. His parents were Peter and Anna Demond. The Demonds were a French family, which emigrated to Germany during the persecution of the Huguenots. Young Demond received his education in the city of his birth, and when twenty-one years of age, at the solicitation of a friend who had come to America some time previously, he bade farewell to his parents and home and sailed for New York City. After remaining there a year, he went, in 1854, to Cassville, Wisconsin, where lived the friend who had preceded him to this country. That town affording no prospects for the advancement of his fortunes, he went to St. Louis, where he remained for a year, engaged in various occupations as they were presented. He then removed to Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- sin, where he became associated with his friend, Jacob Raffauf, in the wholesale liquor and rectifying business. This not being a congenial occupation, after two years, he sold his interest in the establishment and removed to Muscatine, Iowa, where for a time he clerked in a grocery store. April I, 1860, he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, which he has made his home from that time to the present. His first occupation in that city was clerking for Van Lear, Hardy & Co., wholesale druggists. The year following, he engaged in the drug business on his own account, in which he yet continues. He en- joys the two-fold distinction of being the only man who erected a business house in
St. Joseph during the troublous and un- settled years of the Civil War period, and of being owner of the oldest retail drug business in the city, in point of continued existence under one owner. He has no affiliation with any political party, church or fraternal body. He was married at Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- sin, in 1858, to Margaret P. Klaug. Two sons were born of this marriage, Otto and Adolf, who both have learned with him the drug business. Mrs. Demond died in 1892. In 1894 Mr. Demond was married to Miss Ida, daughter of Mr. Jacob Raffauf, the old- time friend who induced him to make his home in America, and two sons, John Jacob and Karl Joseph, have been born of this mar- riage. Mr. Demond has accumulated a handsome fortune in the drug business, which maintains all its former popularity. He is one of the leading German-American citizens of St. Joseph, standing well in commercial and social circles, and enjoying a high repu- tation for public spirit and liberality.
Dennis, George W., farmer and stock- raiser, was born March 21, 1852, in Living- ston County, Missouri, son of Samuel B. and Lucinda (Claypool) Dennis. His father was born in Butler County, Ohio, of Pennsylvania ancestors, and was of mixed Scotch and Ger- man descent. The Claypools, to which family his mother belonged, were natives of Illinois. His parents were married in Lee County, Iowa, and about 1844 came from there to Livingston County, Missouri, where they continued to reside as long as they lived. In his boyhood, George W. Dennis attended the common schools of Livingston County until the Civil War interrupted his studies and de- prived him of the advantages of higher educa- tion. His education, however, was sufficient to enable him to pass an examination and receive a certificate of qualification to teach school, although he did not engage in that calling. . He had a natural fondness for farm life, and as soon as he was old enough to engage in the business on his own account he turned naturally to agricultural pursuits as a permanent vocation. Until 1893 he engaged in general farming, but in that year turned his attention to cattle breeding, thereby establishing himself in a department of stock-raising which has since made him widely known among cattle men. After thoroughly studying the subject he reached
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the conclusion that the Hereford cattle are better adapted to northwestern Missouri and to the markets of this region than other improved breeds, and he purchased what was perhaps the first pure-bred Hereford animal brought into the township in which he re- sides, and one of a very few owned in the county at that time. Starting with a small herd, he has continually added thereto from year to year, until at the present time (1900), he has sixty-four head of the best Herefords to be found in the State. His rule has been to sell none of the females of his herd, all being kept for breeding purposes. All such animals as he wished to dispose of he has found ready market for at private sale. The leading strain in his herd is that of "Anxiety Wilton," one of the best strains of the Here- ford blood. He has one imported animal of very fine pedigree, besides some of the best of this country's production. His splendid farm of 560 acres, which is located in the northwestern part of Livingston County, is admirably adapted to the purpose of a breed- ing farm and Mr. Dennis, being in every respect a thoroughly progressive man, may be expected to take a still more prominent position than he now occupies among the cattle-breeders of the country, in the future. He is one of the most prominent advocates of the improvement of one breed of cattle by the farmer who would succeed as a stock- raiser, and beside devoting his energies to the occupation in which he is engaged, he is active in seeking to educate the farmers of Missouri up to an appreciation of the ad- vantages of raising thoroughbred stock in- stead of inferior grades. In politics, he is a Republican, but has taken no active part in public affairs, other than to fill township offices and discharge the duties incident thereto as a good citizen. September 12, 1888, Mr. Dennis married Miss Cora An- drews, of Livingston County, who was born in Indiana, but came to this State with her mother when she was about twelve years of age. The living children of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis are Imogene, Julia A., George O., Leon and Samuel D. Dennis.
Denny, Alexander, soldier, merchant, banker and farmer, was born in Howard County, Missouri, June 17, 1826. He is the son of James and Elizabeth (Best) Denny, both of whom were natives of Kentucky, the
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