USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98
In 1889 Mr. Rubey again entered the service of the First National Bank of Macon, of which he was made assistant cashier, an executive office of which he remained incumbent until the 1st of January, 1894, when he resigned the position and effected the organization of the State Exchange Bank of Macon, which was incorporated in March of that year, with a capital of $25,000. He became cashier of the institution, in which he was the largest stockholder, and held this position until 1896, when the bank was consolidated with the Bank of Macon, under the title of the State Exchange Bank. He became cashier under the new regime and served in this office until January, 1907, when the institution was consolidated with the First National Bank, which then went into voluntary liquidation, upon the expiration of its charter. In the same year he organized the Rubey-Brown Company, for the handling of real estate mortgages, bonds, securities, ete., and he has since been president of this company, which now controls a large and substantial business and which is one of the leading concerns of the kind in this see- tion of the state. Mr. Rubey is also treasurer of the International Life Insurance Company, of St. Louis, which is incorporated with a capital of $1,000,000. He has proved an aggressive business man and able executive, showing much facility in the handling of affairs of broad scope and importance, so that his personal reputation tends to conserve the success of every enterprise with which he identifies himself. As a
364
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
business man and as a citizen he holds to high civic ideals and he is essentially liberal and public-spirited in his attitude.
In politics Mr. Rubey is a recognized leader of the Democratic forces in his native state, and he has rendered effective service in manoeuvering the normal political agencies in various campaigns. He is at the present time (1909) chairman of the Democratie state central committee, and previously was for many years chairman of the central committee of his party in Macon county. In 1905-6 he ably represented his native county in the state legislature, and was an active and effi- cient worker both on the floor of the house and in the committee room. He was assigned to membership on a number of important committees and was the author of what is known as the negotiable instrument law, which he introduced and ably championed and which was duly enacted. It is worthy of note that this law has since been adopted by nearly all other states in the Union. While serving in the legislature Mr. Rubey was also president of the Missouri Bankers' Association. In 1904 he was elected mayor of Macon, securing a most gratifying majority at the polls, though the city is normally Republican by a considerable majority. He held this office two years and gave a most progressive and businesslike administration of the municipal government.
Mr. Rubey is a man of genial personality, free from ostentation and placing true estimates on men and affairs, so that his popularity has a legitimate basis. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and also with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He holds member- ship in the Macon Commercial Club and is president of the Missouri State Automobile Association. He and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, being members of the parish of St. James church, in Macon.
On the 27th of December, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rubey to Miss Elizabeth A. Wardell, danghter of Thomas Wardell, who was one of the honored and influential citizens of Macon.
V
RICHARD EDWARD OWEN.
Eminently successful in his own business and active and serviceable in promoting every undertaking involving the welfare of the township and county of his home, Richard Edward Owen, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers and stock-raisers of Wahmnt township, in this county, is justly regarded as a highly nseful and representative citizen.
365
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
He is not a native of this state, or even of this country, although he has been living in Missouri and Macon county ever since he was two years old. He was born in Wales on February 8, 1866, and is a son of John and Grace (Jones) Owen, also natives of Wales and descendants of families living in that land of hardy and resourceful people from time immemorial.
The father was a cabinet-maker and wrought at his trade in his native land a number of years. In 1868 he brought his family to the United States and was led by a friendly dispensation of Fortune to Macon county, Missouri, where he located and had every prospeet of prospering well during the rest of his days. But it was decreed that he should not enjoy life long in his new home. Before the end of the year in which he located in it he died, passing away in 1868. His widow is still living and has her home in Glaston. They had five children, but their son, Richard E., is the only one of them now living.
Richard E. Owen was reared in Macon county and secured his education in its public schools. Orphaned by the death of his father while he was himself still an infant, and with his mother a stranger in a land far distant from the home of her ancestors and all her early friends, his boyhood and youth were full of care and privation. His mother gave him excellent supervision and provided for his wants as well as she could, accepting her hard and lonely destiny with a heroic spirit and doing all she could to meet its every requirement. Still, every step of her son's advance was the result of effort and struggle on his part, and what he is and has now he has produced himself by his own capacity and indefatigable industry. He is a self-made man in the best sense of the phrase and is a credit to the inherent ability and force of character by means of which he has won his success and attained his prominence and influence among the people.
After leaving school Mr. Owen worked at various occupations for awhile, doing whatever he could get to do and doing all so well that he soon established himself in the confidence and regard of the people as a reliable and competent man at whatever he turned his hand to. But he at all times felt a longing to be a farmer and raise live-stock for the markets, and in the course of a few years he made his way to the accomplishment of his desires in this respect. He now owns a fine farm of 160 acres, all of which is under cultivation except what is reserved for grazing purposes, and has the place well improved with comfortable and commodious buildings and all the appliances of a first-rate country home. His stock industry is extensive and a source of pride and great
366
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
attention to him. He gives every step of the work connected with it his personal oversight and applies to its management all the information he can gather from reading, observation and reflection. The result is that he has a high reputation for the quality of his output and it ranks far up in the market.
His connection with the public affairs of the township and county is close and serviceable. He takes an active interest and a leading part in all projects of worth for the development and improvement of the region, and is always to be found at the front in furthering their advancement and successful accomplishment. In political allegiance he is allied with the Democratic party, and is one of its faithful and efficient workers in all campaigns. He has been a member of the school board for a number of years and a justice of the peace for three. He also served one term as road overseer. In all these positions he has given the people excellent and appreciated service, having an eye single to their welfare and the public good. In fraternal life he is a member of the Woodmen of the World and in religious connection belongs to the Presbyterian church. In 1894 he was married to Miss Irene Hazen, a native of Oregon and a lineal descendant of General Hazen, who was a distinguished soldier in the Civil war and for a long time at the head of the United States weather bureau. They have three children, their sons, Richard, Jr., Philip and Daniel, all of whom are still members of the family circle and attending school.
Richard E. Owen met Miss Hazen while he was working on the Northern Pacific railroad. Quitting the railroad, he accepted a posi- tion as fireman in the Hotel Portland, in 1889. Five years later he married, living with his bride one year in Portland, then coming to Missouri in 1895 to take up the happy life of a farmer.
SINGLETON LYLE KASEY.
This highly representative citizen and leading farmer of Macon county, whose interests are principally in Morrow township near the town of Callao, and are very extensive and valuable, was born on June 8, 1838, in Breckinridge county, Kentucky, but has lived in this county since 1866, a period of forty-four years. His parents, Singleton Lyle, Sr., and Frances (Boatwright) Kasey, were born and reared in Vir- ginia, the former in Bedford county and the latter in Cumberland county. They were planters of prominence and influence in the Old Dominion, and accounted among the best citizens of that portion of the state in which they lived. They were married in 1823 and had four children, all of whom they reared to maturity. Three of them are liv-
367
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
ing, Eliza, widow of the late Clinton McCann; James T., who lives at Salisbury, Missouri, and Silgleton L. Their mother died at her Ken- tucky home on January 3, 1866, and the next year the father came to Missouri to live. Here he passed the remainder of his days, dying on March 28, 1875, in Macon county. He was a Whig until the party. of his young espousal died and he then became a Democrat. He always took an active part in politieal affairs, but was never a candidate for any office, either by election or appointment. He was a man of large property, owning considerable land in Virginia and Kentucky and a large number of slaves before the Civil war: When he moved into this state he located at what is now Kaseyville in Maeon county, which got its name from him and his family. The great-grandfather of our sub- ject was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, serving three years under General Morgan. He took part in the battle of Gilford Courthouse and a number of other important engagements, being discharged at Morristown.
His son, Singleton Lyle Kasey, was reared on the parental estate in Kentucky and educated in the schools of his native county. After completing his education he taught school for a number of years there. In 1866 he moved to Macon county, Missouri, and two years later, in association with his brother, he started a mercantile establishment at Kaseyville, which they condueted together for a period of twenty years. The brother retired after ten years. He then retired from mer- chandising to devote his entire attention to farming and raising stock, except what might be required for the performance of a good citizen's duty in connection with public affairs and the development and improvement of the region in which he lived. He is still actively engaged in farming and raising stock, and has been very successful in all his operations. He now owns and has under cultivation 1,450 aeres of first-rate land, all of which he farms with skill and good judgment, except what is necessary for grazing for his extensive herds and flocks.
. In polities Mr. Kasey is a firm and faithful working Democrat, with an earnest and continuous interest in the success of his party and a determined and effective zeal in helping to bring that about on all occasions. He has demonstrated decided fitness for publie office and a wide knowledge of public affairs. So conspicuous has he been in this respeet that in 1892 he was elected a member of the state legislature and re-elected in 1894, serving until 1896. He took high rank in the legislature and rendered his constitueney and the people of the whole state valuable and appreciated service. He had a law passed ereating an additional mine inspector, thus increasing the closeness and effi-
368
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
ciency of the inspection by dividing the work between two men instead of having it all done by one. This law has been of great benefit to the state and has also helped the mining interests very considerably by securing greater care and better results in their work. Fraternally Mr. Kasey has been a member of the Masonic order since 1864. He was married on November 6, 1878, to Miss Octavia Stanley Hall, a native of Randolph county, Missouri. They have four children, James S., Emma Eliza, Sebree Preble and John Willian.
JOHN A. WRIGHT.
A native of Macon county, born on August 26, 1852, and having passed all of the fifty-eight years of his life to this time within the borders of the county, John AA. Wright, of Ethel, is thoroughly acquainted with the people here and knows all the springs of political, intellectual, moral and industrial life that actuate and animate them. He has been a busy man among them, taking a leading part in all their activities and helping by every means at his command to develop the township and county, advance the interests of their people, broaden and intensify all the agencies for good work in their midst, and hold up the highest ideals of citizenship before all the world. He is therefore justly entitled to the universal esteem in which he is held and altogether worthy of the general good will that is bestowed upon him in all parts of the county.
Mr. Wright is a son of David and Eliza (Ballinger) Wright, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. The father became a resident of Missouri in 1842, making his home in Macon county and actively engaging in farming and raising live stock. The mother came to this state and county with her parents in 1845. Here she made the acquaintance of the elder Mr. Wright and here they were married. They had two children, their sons K. D. and John A. The father was a Democrat in political faith but was never an active partisan. He died in 1852, and sometime afterward the mother was married to John Williams, a native of Macon county, by whom she became the mother of four additional children: Mary, the wife of Thomas Conklin of Callao; Lucy, the wife of William Stacy of Bucklin, Linn county ; S. P. and Nicholas. Their mother died in November 1896 and their father in 1873. Both were respected highly by all who knew them.
John A. Wright grew to manhood on his step-father and uncle's farm and obtained his elementary education at the district schools in the neighborhood of his home. He completed his seho-
369
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
lastic training at Old Bloomington under the tutorship of W. O. Gray. He did not, however, aim at professional life or mercan- tile pursuits. He had a decided taste for farming, and as soon as he left school he turned his attention to this calling and to this he has adhered with unwavering fidelity ever since. He has not allowed his own affairs to wholly absorb his energies and time, though, for he has been active and serviceable in the interest of the township and county, and has given their affairs a considerable amount of his time and attention. He has been a justice of the peace continuously for more than twenty years and a member of the school board for more than ten. In 1902 he was elected county judge and served acceptably in that capacity for four years. In politics he is a pronounced Republican and always zealous and effective in the service of his party. While not an office seeker or desirous of public life, he consented to serve a term of two years as constable in addition to filling the offices already mentioned as having been held by him.
Mr. Wright's official life has in all respects been greatly to his credit, and his activity in church work has also been pronounced in its energy and beneficial results. He is connected by membership with the Christian church, and during all of the last twenty-seven years has been one of the elders of the congregation to which he belongs, and he has also been the superintendent of two Sunday schools at the same time, and very energetic in Sunday school work. In July, 1872, he was married to Miss Louisa J. Richardson, a native of this county. Of the seven children born to them four are living, Oscar, Otis, John Luther and Elmer. The parents are regarded as among the most worthy and estimable citizens of the county.
B. DENNIS BRADLEY.
While the life work of a bank cashier is necessarily one of con- siderable routine and sameness, following the same beaten path from day to day and month to month without much variety in incident, it nevertheless affords the man who fills it in the proper spirit oppor- tunity for great usefulness to his community and service to its people in both a personal and general way. Interests of magnitude are often dependent for their accomplishment on the assistance of the banking facilities, and private welfare is many times almost at their mercy. If those facilities are used wisely and judiciously they can be made to minister to both the general and the individual prosperity, and help every enterprise to good and useful development.
B. Dennis Bradley, for some years cashier of the Citizens Bank
370
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
of Ethel in this county, and formerly cashier of the Bank of Ethel in the same town, is one of those gentlemen who know how to conduct a banking business with a spirit of usefulness to the people among whom it is carried on, while, at the same time, carefully caring for and pro- tecting the interests of the stockholders and depositors of the insti- tution. His service in these respects are highly appreciated in Ethel and throughout the country that is tributary to it in the way of trade, for they have been judicious and rendered with due regard to all the interests the banks he has served have had in charge and the welfare of the whole community.
Mr. Bradley is a native of Macon county and was born in White township on September 23,1876. He obtained his preliminary scholastic training in the common schools and completed it at the State Normal School at Kirksville. In 1900 he entered the Bank of Ethel as cashier, and in this capacity he served it faithfully until May 18, 1905. On August 26, 1906, lie became cashier of the Citizen Bank of Ethel, and to the duties of that position he has ever since faithfully devoted his time, energies and accomplishments. He is recognized as one of the most capable and careful bank officials in this part of the state, and the insti- tution to which he gives his services is regarded as one of the most progressive, wisely managed and enterprising in Northeastern Mis- souri. The people have confidence in it, for it has demonstrated its soundness and the prudence with which it is conducted. The business community around it believes in it, for it has been liberal in accom- modations to. business men and institutions, and at the same time, has taken every precaution to protect its stockholders and depositors from all undesirable or risky transactions. Financial circles here and elsewhere accord it high rank for progressiveness, modern methods of doing business, and the employment of excellent judgment in the man- agement of its affairs. Its reputation is largely due to the intelligence and breadth of view which Mr. Bradley has exhibited as its cashier and the controlling spirit in its directorate. It does a general banking business, including every feature of enterprising modern banking, and has made steady progress into more extensive operations and a larger volume of business from its very foundation.
Mr. Bradley takes an earnest interest and active part in public affairs. He is a Democrat in politics, always zealous in the service of his party and judicious in his efforts to help it to success. He is at present town treasurer of Ethel and as such is rendering acceptable service to the community. Fraternally he is connected with the Order of Elks and the Masonic Order with the rank of a noble of the Mystic
WILLIAM T. GILBREATH
371
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
Shrine in the latter. He was married in 1903 to Miss Mary Phipps, a native of Macon county. They have four children, W. T., Helen B., Paul D., and Beverly R.
WILLIAM THOMAS GILBREATH.
Owning and operating three excellent farms, and, since May 1, 1882, the energetic and progressive president of the La Plata Savings Bank, William Thomas Gilbreath is one of the prominent, useful and influential citizens of that favored portion of this connty known as La Plata township, and well deserves his eminence among the people of that section. There is much in his ancestry and the record of his fam- ily that would account for his success in all his undertakings in the judgment of the antiquary or the critical inquirer into circumstances which determine a man's capability to meet the requirements of his situation in life. But observers who associate with a man from day to day and know him well do not have to look beyond his own manifesta- tions to find a sufficient basis for his actions or a full explanation of ihs career. Such observers have found in the case of Mr. Gilbreath enough in his personal character and capabilities to justify the success he has won and the mastery over circumstances and conditions which he has shown in all the relations of life.
Nevertheless, his family history is interesting and important as showing inherited traits and the inspiration springing from ancestral examples. Mr. Gilbreath was born in La Plata township, on March 26, 1849, and is a son of Judge John and Martha (Clayton) Gilbreath, the former a native of Manry county, Tennessee, and the latter of the state of Maryland, where the Claytons have been domesticated from early colonial times. John Gilbreath was a son of Hugh Gilbreath and a Kentucky lady whose maiden name was Hannah Conover, and who died in 1829, when her son, John, was but twelve years of age, he having been born on December 8, 1817. Hugh Gilbreath was one of the early settlers of Cooper county, Missouri, having migrated from his native state of Tennessee to that portion of Missouri with his family in 1826. In that county he took up a tract of government land and resided on it until his death in 1851. He took up his land while it was a part of the trackless wilderness in this state, and in the quarter of a century of effort and skill he bestowed upon it he made it over into a productive farm, improved with good buildings and equipped with all the appli- ances of a comfortable country home of the day and locality in which he lived. He served in the war of 1812 and won distinction for his valor in the field, his endurance on the march and his readiness for every
37
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
emergency in the service. His second wife was Miss Flora MacDuffe, a lady of Scotch ancestry and distinguished lineage in that country. Both were widely known and highly respected in Cooper county, in which the greater part of their activities in this state were expended.
Their son, John Gilbreath, grew to manhood in Cooper county, Missouri, and was married there to Miss Martha Clayton, on February 18, 1840. In 1841 he moved to Newton county with his young bride, and after a residence of less than a year in that county moved again, taking up his residence in Cole county. In 1841 he came to Macon county and bought a farm three miles south of La Plata. Making this the base of his operations, he entered government land and purchased other tracts until he owned more than 1,000 acres, all of which he farmed and devoted to his kindred industry of raising live stock, and in both industries he was eminently successful.
In 1872 he was elected county judge and his service on the bench was highly creditable to himself and of great benefit to the people. But his chief title to distinction was the fact that he was among the first to engage in raising shorthorn cattle in this part of the state, and by that means one of the chief contributors to raising the stand- ard of cattle in the county, which he did with great effeet in his day and generation, and which his son, William T. Gilbreath, has done with similar results in his. For many years the father raised and handled a large number of this superior breed of cattle, and by his example stimulated others to do the same. The result was that he created a market for his output and at the same time helped to expand the pro- vision for supplying it. He and his wife were the parents of six chil- dren: John H., who lives at La Plata; Nancy C., who is the wife of George Roon of this county; William T., the immediate subject of this review; James C., who is a resident of the state of Colorado; and Charles C. and Lorenzo D., the latter of whom died in 1878. The father died in September, 1887, at the age of seventy years, and the mother on January 18, 1904, aged eighty-one years. The father was a Free Mason in fraternal life and a member of Missionary Baptist church in religious affiliation. Their son, William T. Gilbreath, is a worthy son of a worthy sire, and in his career has well upheld the family name and traditions, exemplifying all the traits of character and all the mani- festations of enterprise for which his father and grandfather were distinguished. He also is distinguished as a producer of superior grades of cattle and hogs on a large scale, and by his zeal and enter- prise in this industry has very considerably awakened and fostered similar enterprise in his neighbors and acquaintances, and the farmers
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.