USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 29
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body of distinguishel men his general and comprehensive intelligence and breadth of view gave him prominence and enabled him to render the people service of great value in determining some of the essential features of their organic law.
On March 27, 1866, Mr. Dysart was united in marriage with Miss Emma V. Turner, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Bell) Turner, and a native of Pike county, Missouri, although her parents were born and reared in Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Dysart have two children, their daughters, Mande and Pearl. The parents are members of the Cum- berland Presbyterian church. For more than forty-two years Mr. Dysart has been an active practitioner of the law in this county. He has, in that long period, been connected with many leading cases and had both a busy and a highly creditable career. In all his practice he has upheld lofty ideals of citizenship and professional life, and, while giving all his energies and all his ability to luis clients, has never lost sight of the highest duty of an advocate, which is to aid in promoting the cause of justice and securing right results in court proceedings. He is highly esteemed in and out of his profession, and richly deserves the universal regard and good will of the people which they so freely bestow upon him in all parts of the state.
BEN. FRANKLIN.
With a practice of seventeen years in the legal profession in Macon connty to his credit, and extensive farming and live stock operations, also, to engage his attention and contribute to the wealth and commercial importance of the county, Ben. Franklin, one of the leading citizens of Macon, is justly regarded as one of the most useful and progressive men in this progressive section of the state of Missouri, and a true representative of its upright, enterprising and serviceable manhood.
Mr. Franklin is a native of the state, born in Putnam county on September 14, 1861, and is a son of John N. and Saralı E. (Lucas) Franklin, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Virginia. The father passed his boyhood in Ohio and came to this state in 1855, locat- ing in Putnam county. He was a farmer's son in Ohio and a progres- sive and successful farmer in Missouri. He was a Democrat in politics and took a very active interest in public affairs, but never accepted a political office, either by election or appointment. He died in June, 1896. The mother, who was a daughter of James and Margrite Lucas, the former a Kentuckian and the latter a Virginian by nativity, is still living and has her home in Unionville, Putnam county, Missouri. They
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were the parents of six children, five of whom are living: Cains Cas- sins ; Marcus A .; Nelson Amherst; Ben and Thomas S.
Ben Franklin, as he is called by everybody, and as he prefers to be called, began his scholastic training in the public schools of his native county, continued it at the Stanberry Normal school, and com- pleted it at the state university, located at Columbia, where he pursued the literary course. After leaving that institution he studied law under the direction of Hon. Andrew Ellison, judge of the Circuit Court at Kirksville, Missouri. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1889, and began the practice of his profession at Unionville in Putnam county, remaining there until 1893. In that year he moved to Macon, and there he has been practicing ever since, with a steady rise in rank in the profession and a constantly increasing body of clients. He is recognized as one of the leaders of the Macon county bar and has been connected with a large number of the principal cases tried in the county since his practice in it began.
In 1896 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Macon county and in 1898 was re-elected, serving four years consecutively in the office. In 1900 and 1902 he was chairman of the county central committee of his party in the county and proved himself of great value as an organizer and party manager. He was also one of the presidential electors on the ticket of his party in the campaign of Hon. Alton B. Parker for the presidency. He is a pronounced Democrat in political faith and at all times takes a very active part in the campaigns of his party. He has been twice elected president of the local school board, and is now (1910) serving in that capacity. In religious faith he is a Baptist.
Mr. Franklin was married in 1895 to Miss Grace M. Simmons, a native of Missouri and a daughter of George E. and Emily (Pepkin) Simmons, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of this state. Five children were born of this union, all of whom are living. They are: Emily V., Frances E., John N., Amy L. and Mary Guthrie. It has been stated that Mr. Franklin is one of the leading lawyers of Macon county. He is also prominent as a farmer and stock man, owning and cultivating a total of 340 acres of first-rate land, divided into two farms, each well improved and completely equipped for its work, and carrying on an extensive live-stock industry, according to the most approved and progressive modern methods known to the business.
Mr. Franklin is one of those men who have capacity for conduct- ing a number of industries successfully at the same time. Ilis farm-
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ing and stock interests are never allowed to interfere with his legal practice, but they are carried on with vigor and intelligence and in their way and to the full measure of skillful cultivation minister to his welfare. His practice, although it is extensive and exacting, on the other hand, is not allowed to absorb his energies or his time to the exclusion of other affairs of moment, and so he is successful and enterprising in whatever he turns his attention to. In the duties of citizenship, and attention to whatever helps to improve the township and county of his home, or minister to the substantial advantage of its people, he is always zealous, energetic and leading. No good proj- ect for the benefit of the region in which he lives goes withont his active and intelligent aid, and he not only puts his own shoulder to the wheel of progress of the county, but stimulates others by his influence and example to do the same. No citizen of Macon county stands higher in the regard and good will of its people, and none is more worthy of their respect and high esteem, from whatever point of view the observer may take.
JOHN SCOVERN.
V
Measured by its beneficence, its rectitude, its productiveness, its altruism, and its material success, the life of this honored citizen and representative business man of Macon has counted for much. He is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Missouri, which has been his home from the time of his birth, and he has not only been, in the most significant sense, the architect of his own fortunes, implying the winning of a large and worthy success in connection with the practical activities of life, but he has also, through his well- directed efforts, contributed materially to the civic and industrial progress and prosperity of his native state. His life has been an event- ful one and through the legitimate application of his own powers and talents he has risen to a position as one of the substantial capitalists and essentially representative citizens of Missouri. He is at the pres- ent time president of the State Exchange Bank of Macon, one of the strong and popular financial institutions of the state, and he is one of the veteran newspaper men of this commonwealth, in which connec- tion he has wielded much influence in the directing of public thought and action.
Jolın Scovern was born on a farm in Clark county, Missouri, on the 7th of March, 1845, and is a son of Samuel G. and Elizabeth (Gil- lins) Scovern, both of whom were born in England. The father came to America with his parents in 1829, and it is known, however, that
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the paternal grandparents of the subject of this review settled in Ohio, where they passed the residue of their lives, their remains being interred in an ancient cemetery at Zanesville, that state. The mother was brought to the United States and was married in Augusta, Kentucky. It is presumed that Samuel G. Scovern was a boy at the time of the family immigration to the United States and that he was reared to manhood in Ohio. He was a millwright by trade and followed this vocation prior to his removal to Missouri, to which state he came in the pioneer epoch of its history, making the journey by boat down the Ohio river and thence up the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. He located in Clark county, Missouri, where he forthwith grappled with the wilderness in his labors of reclaiming a farm, having secured a tract of government land. He gave his attention to the improvement and cultivation of this farm until 1851, when he disposed of the property and removed to Alexandria, Clark county, which was then the most thriving and promising town in Northeast Missouri. A number of years later he removed to Lee county, Iowa, where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. He died in 1899 and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1897. They were folk of sterling integrity of char- acter and the father was a man of industrious habits and strong indi- viduality. While conditions were such that he never attained to a large measure of temporal prosperity, he exerted a helpful influence in the various communities in which he resided and ever held the con- fidence and good will of his fellow-men. He was a Republican in polities and he and his wife held membership in the Episcopalian church. They became the parents of eight sons and one daughter, and of the number three of the sons and the daughter are living at the time of this writing, in 1909. Locating in Missouri at a time and in a section marked by the manifold disadvantages ever characteristic of pioneer life, the family endured the full tension of the incidental hardships, deprivations and arduous labor of life on the frontier, and the names of Samnel G. Sco- vern and his noble wife merit an enduring place on the roll of the hon- ored pioneers of the state of Missonri.
John Seovern, the immediate subject of this review, was, by the very nature of conditions in the days of his boyhood and youth, denied more than the most meager of educational advantages, bnt, like many another valiant soul, he has well overcome the handicap of early years. He attended private schools of the primitive order common to the local- ity and period in which he was reared, but while still a mere boy he became largely dependent upon his own resources. At the age of twelve years he "accepted" the dignified and inviolable office of "devil" in
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the office of the Alexandria Reveille, the first Free Soil paper to be published in Missouri, and in this establishment he served an effective apprenticeship in connection with the "art preservative of all arts," becoming a skilled compositor and familiarizing himself with all inci- dental details of the trade. It has well been said that the discipline of a printing office is equivalent to a liberal education, and this was sig- nificantly justified under the condition that obtained at the time when Mr. Scovern was thus gaining his knowledge of the business. He ampli- fied his knowledge in a practical way and none who have known him in the years of his maturity can doubt his having well profited by the edneation he received while thus identified with the printing and pub- lishing business. To the foreman of the office in which he served his apprenticeship he has ever felt a debt of gratitude and appreciation for the kindly consideration accorded and the assistance given in the secur- ing of the educational training which would otherwise have been denied him. He has kept in close touch with the thought and action of the times, has read widely and with discrimination, and is today a man of broad and definite culture, though never given the benefit of direct academic training.
Mr. Scovern continued to be employed in the office of the Reveille for a period of four years, and from 1861 to 1864, the climateric period of the civil war, he was identified with steamboat transportation on the Mississippi, Missouri and Cumberland rivers, serving in various minor offices on various boats. These river vessels were largely in service for the transportation of supplies for the United States government, and during his association therewith Mr. Scovern encountered many thrill- ing adventures, as the boats were traversing the greater portion of the time the water highways along which the conflict between the north and south waged fiercely. It is needless to say that he has a plethora of interesting reminiscences in regard to his experiences during this period, and when conditions favor he can be drawn upon for tales of marked historical interest in connection with the period when the dark cloud of fratricidal war cast its gruesome pall over the national horizon. He was on the steamer, "Sunnyside," at the time when the samo was burned, at Island No. 16, in the Mississippi river, in Septem- ber, 1863, and this disaster entailed the loss of ninety lives, among those sacrificed being sixteen women and a number of children. He was in service on one of the first boats to pass Vicksburg after its surrender, and on another vessel he made a hazardous trip in the transportation of government supplies up the Cumberland river. In 1864 he was on the steamer, "Benton," which ascended the Missonri river to Fort
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Benton, Montana, then the head of navigation. This boat was engaged in trading with the Indians, and those on board met with many adven- tures on this eventful voyage into the great wilds of the northwest. From data furnished by Mr. Scovern, Edgar White, a representative literary and newspaper man of Macon, has written a very interesting article concerning this trip.
In 1865, after the close of the war, Mr. Scovern resumed his con- nection with newspaper work, but at this time in the position of editor and publisher of the True Flag, which he established at Alexandria, this state, and which became a power in moulding public sentiment in that section. At a later period he admitted to partnership the late Noble L. Prentiss, who was for many years before his death associate editor of the Kansas City Star, being one of the leading newspaper men of Missouri. It was while conducting the True Flag that Mr. Scovern was enabled to accumulate his first appreciable capital and to lay the foundation of his later and pronounced success as a business man. This financial return was that gained from the publication of legal notices of sheriff's sales in Clark county, from which source he realized more than $5,000. These were the first official notices of the kind to be pub- lished in the county mentioned after the close of the war. In 1869 Mr. Scovern disposed of his interest in the True Flag and removed to Kirks- ville, Missouri, where he engaged in the general merchandise business, in connection with which enterprise he achieved a substantial success. In Kirksville, also, he was primarily instrumental in the founding of the newspaper known as the North Missouri Register, and it finally devolved upon him to assume control of the paper, which he thereafter reluctantly conducted as editor and publisher for one year, at the expi- ration of which he disposed of all his interests in Kirksville and removed to Glenwood, Schuyler county, where he was successfully engaged in the general merchandise business until his removal to Macon, in the spring of 1882.
Soon after establishing his home in this city Mr. Seovern initiated his identification with the banking business, by becoming a member of the private banking firm of Scovern, Logan & Wilson. In March, 1883, Mr. Scovern and his associates organized the First National Bank of Macon, and these private banking interests were merged into that bank. Mr. Scovern acted as president and cashier of this bank for twenty-five years, when it was liquidated for the purpose of consolidating with the State Exchange Bank, of which he is now president. The interested principals in this institution then purchased the interests of Webster M. and Harry M. Rubey and others in the State Exchange Bank, and
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upon the reorganization of the latter at that time Mr. Scovern was cho- sen president, of which chief executive office he has since remained in tenure. His personal reputation and financial standing have contrib- uted materially to the success of the bank, as have also his executive and administrative talents. The bank is now one of the solid and popular financial institutions of the state, basing its operations upon a capital stock of $100,000, with deposits over $500,000, and undivided profits of about $20,000. The bank building in its architecture and appointments is one that would be creditable to a metropolitan center, and its facilities for handling effectively all details of a general banking business are of the best. The executive officers besides the president are as here noted : Thomas E. Wardell, vice-president ; Charles A. Wardell, cashier, and Christopher R. Maffry, assistant cashier. In addition to the president, vice-president and cashier, the directorate of the bank also includes John T. Doneghy, Edward B. Clements, Ben Eli Guthrie, William E. McCully, Thomas S. Watson and Herman V. Miller.
Mr. Scovern is a man of broad and liberal views and distinctive public spirit, and he has naturally been marked by the people as an eligible candidate for offices of trust. Thus he served as councilman- at-large in the city council of Macon, and in 1889 he was elected mayor of the city, as the candidate on both the Republican and Democratic tickets, a fact that indicates beyond peradventure the tenacious hold he has upon the confidence and esteem of the community. He gave a most progressive and businesslike administration as chief executive of the municipal government. He was a member of the board of education for six years, during the last four of which he was president of the same. Within his incumbency of this position was erected the present fine school building, which would be a credit to a city many times greater in population and wealth than is Macon. In politics Mr. Scovern is admirably fortified in his convictions, and he has rendered important and effective service in advancing the cause of the Republican party in his native state. He and his family are communicants of the Protes- tant Episcopal church, holding membership in the parish of St. James church, in whose affairs they take the deepest interest. Mr. Scovern has been a communicant of the church for half a century, and for the past eighteen years he has served as senior warden of his parish. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalrie degrees, being identified with Emmanuel Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templar. His life has been one of consecutive and well- directed endeavor, and his life has not been hedged in by self-interest, but has been marked by an abiding sympathy and tolerance, and appre-
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ciation of the well-springs of human motives, so that he has, with a sense of stewardship, endeavored to aid and sustain the efforts of "all sorts and conditions of men." He has an inviolable hold upon the esteem and confidence of the community with whose interests he is so closely identified, and none may retain this without just desert.
In the year 1870 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Scovern to Miss Emma Haywood, who was born in Clark county, Missouri, and who is a daughter of William and Elizabeth Haywood, both of whom were natives of Virginia and Kentucky, whence they came to missouri in the pioneer days and numbering themselves among the earliest settlers of Clark county, where the father reclaimed a valuable farm and where he and his wife passed the residne of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Scovern have one daughter, Lnln May, who remains at the parental home and who is a popular figure in connection with the social activities of her home city.
GOODDING BROTHERS.
Isaac Willard and Edward F. Goodding, to whom these paragraphs are especially dedicated, and whose lives they briefly record, are among the leading farmers, stock-breeders and most esteemed citizens of Lyda township, Macon county. They have met the requirements and per- formed the duties of life in accordance with the spirit of a distin- gnished ancestry, and at all times and in every relation of life have upheld the family name and reputation by their own worth and elevated manhood.
These gentlemen are the sons of Richard P. Goodding, who was born in Randolph connty, Missouri, in 1826, and was reared and edu- cated in the place of his nativity, obtaining his education in the prim- itive country schools of his boyhood and youth, characteristic of the frontier, and the best that were available in the wild condition and sparsely populated state of the region as it was then, and amid the scenes and exactions of pioneer life he acquired the qualities of self- reliance and readiness for every emergency which life on the frontier begets, and which are a necessary part of the equipment for its duties.
Richard P. Goodding's father was Capt. Abraham Goodding, a native of Tennessee who became a resident of what is now the state of Missouri in 1816. He was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812 and fonght well under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, where the hardy citizen soldiery of our then unpruned wilderness confronted and confounded all that valor, discipline, extensive experience and practically unlimited resources could give the flower of the British
.
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army. He was also eaptain of a company in the Black Hawk war, and in that brief but sanguinary contest saw the red braves of the forest fall like autumn leaves before the unerring rifles of the backwoodsmen of the period, who never faltered in the presence of any danger, or failed to make their mark in any confliet. He married with Miss Nancy Rogers, a native of Kentucky, who was imbued with the same heroic spirit that distinguished him. Coming to this state in 1816, he loeated in Howard county, where he lived six years. In 1823 he moved to Randolph county and built the first house erected on the east side of the East Fork of the Chariton river. His life ended there on May 26, 1877.
His son, Richard P. Goodding. located in Macon county in 1860, and in June of that year married Miss Nancy J. Ayers, a daughter of Joseph and Charlotte (Shelton) Ayers, who was born in Morgan county. Tennessee, and came to Missouri with her parents when she was but eleven years of age. She and her husband and six children, four of whom are living, Isaac Willard, Lucinda Frances, Edward F. and Herschel M. The other two were Mary B., who died in 1889, and was at that time the wife of Albert J. Crawford, and John R., who died in 1907 in New Mexico. The father died on April 3, 1905. The mother is still living and has her home with her two sons, Isaae W. and Edward F. Her advanced age of seventy years has not much lessened her activity, and her genial and generous disposition has grown stronger in its admirable traits through all the trials and hardships she has been called upon by force of circumstances to suffer. She is well and favor- ably known throughout a large extent of the surrounding country and is everywhere highly esteemed and venerated.
Isaac Willard Goodding was born in Macon county on March 26, 1865, and obtained his education at the schools in the vicinity of his home. Since leaving school he has been engaged in farming and rais- ing stock, in which he is associated with his brother, Edward F. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, and has always taken an earnest and serviceable interest in church work. He has also been zealous in all the duties of citizenship, and been particularly active in his efforts to advance the best interests of his township and county and promote the welfare of their people in every possible way.
Edward F. Goodding is also a native of this county and was born on October 4, 1873. He, too, obtained his education at the schools near his home in its preparatory stage, but finished it at Missouri Valley college. As soon as he left college he joined his brother, Isaac, in the farming and stock-breeding enterprise, which they have ever sinee
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
conducted together. He, like his brother, is warmly interested in church work and has for some years served the congregation in the Presbyterian church, to which he belongs, as a deacon. He is also a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and K. of M., and is much inter- ested in the improvement and advancement of the region in which he lives as any other citizen.
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