USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 62
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
THOMAS D. THOMAS, JR.
Mr. Thomas is recognized as one of the alert and progressive business men of the younger generation in his native city and county and is essentially and deeply loyal as a citizen of the county and state in which it has been his to attain a large measure of success in con- nection with practical commercial and industrial activities and in which his eirele of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances.
Thomas D. Thomas, Jr., was born in Bevier, this county, on the 24th of November, 1869, and is a son of Thomas D. Thomas, Sr. of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this volume, so that a repe- tition of the data is not demanded in the sketch at hand. Mr. Thomas is indebted to the public schools of Bevier for his early educational training, and after leaving school he was associated with his father in the work and management of the farm, located in Callao township, about four miles west of Bevier and comprising 115 acres. He con- tinued to be actively indentified with agrienltural pursuits and stock- growing for a period of about fifteen years, at the expiration of which he located in the city of Bevier, where he became one of the interested principals in the firm of A. D. Thomas & Company, which conducts one of the largest and most successful general merchandise establishments in the county, and with this concern he has since been actively identified. maintaining a status as one of the liberal and enterprising merchants of his native place. Though he has had no predilection for the honors or emoluments of publie office, Mr. Thomas is found enlisted as a staunch supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican
592
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
party, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the First Con- gregational church of Bevier. In a fraternal way he is identified with the local organization of the Knights of Pythias.
On the 21st of March, 1894, Mr. Thomas was united in marriage to Miss Elva M. Pillers, of Callao, this county, in which she was born and reared, and of their four children three are living: Ralph, Verbena and Wendell.
OTHO F. MATTHEWS.
This gentleman, who was recently elected mayor of the city of Macon by a majority of 250 votes over his Republican opponent, although the city is normally Republican by a majority of 80 to 100, is a native of the city and has passed the whole of his life to this time, except during his absence while attending school, among its people. The elcetorate of the city, therefore, sustained his candidacy with full knowledge of his character and record, and on these they impressively placed the stamp of their approval.
Mr. Matthews was born in Macon on May 21, 1875, and is just thirty-five years old. He is a son of Judge R. S. Matthews, a sketch of whose life will be found in this work, and reference to it is made for the earlier history of the family. He was edneated in the schools of Macon, being graduated from the high school in 1890. He then attended the University of Missouri two years, and afterward the Cumberland Uni- versity at Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B., with the class of 1896. Having selected the law as his profession, he bagan the study of it in his father's office, and in Septem- ber, 1897, was admitted to the bar through an examination condneted by Judge Andrew Ellison.
After his admission to the bar he at onee formed a partnership with his father under the firm name of R. S. Matthews & Son, and as a member of this firm he has been actively and continuonsly engaged in the practice of law ever since. In 1904 he was a candidate for the office of prosecuting attorney, but was defeated at the primary election. But his defeat in his first attempt to secure an office in the service of the people had no effect on his devotion to his party or his ardor in its service except to increase them. He has been a life-long Democrat, and even before the dawn of his manhood was an earnest and effective worker for the success of his political organization. His attitude in this respect has never wavered, and his party work has been highly appreciated by both the leaders of his party and its rank and file, his effectiveness as a campaigner being universally admitted.
OTHO F MATTHEWS
593
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
Mr. Matthews also takes an active interest and a leading part in the fraternal and social life of the community. He is a prominent mem- ber of the Order of Elks and belongs to other organizations of worth which are promotive of intellectual, moral and social interests among the people. His religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian church of the United States of America, and is one of the trustees and the treasurer of the Presbyterian board of the MeGee Presbytery.
In the local affairs of the city of Macon Mr. Matthews has taken a warm and serviceable interest from his youth, and sinee he became a man and voter he has been at the front in every movement for the advancement of the city that commended itself to his judgment. This activity in behalf of the city's welfare, and the knowledge of its needs which he has displayed therein for years gave him a great hold on the confidence and regard of its people as one of its best and most judicions friends, and this fact counted strongly in his favor in the late municipal election, in which, as has been noted, he reversed long standing party majorities and led all candidates of his party, past and present, in the vote he received as a candidate for the mayoralty of the city. He was swept into the office, in fact, on a tidal wave of public confidence and enthusiasm, which is a strong testimonal to his public spirit and his private worth. And his past record in every relation in life fully justifies the confidence of the people which elected him and the high expectations they have of his uprightness, breadth of view and strict adherence to the best interests of the community in the discharge of his official duties.
Mr. Matthews was married on December 25, 1901, to Miss Mary Alby Anderson, a granddaughter of Thomas L. Anderson, who for years represented the First Missouri district in the congress of the United States and was widely known as a distinguished lawyer and orator. She is the daughter of William R. Anderson, one of the leading lawyers of Palmyra and a nieee of the late Rufus Anderson of Hannibal in this state. Mrs. Matthews is a lady of talent and high culture in literary maters. Many products of her facile and graceful pen have won reputation for her and brought her high approval in public opinion and the press. One in particular is her novel entitled "Love vs. Law," which was very extensively sold throughout the country and received hosts of very favorable notices in the newspapers and literary mag- azines. She is in addition a member of the bar, and before her marriage served with ability as eity attorney of Palmyra. She is also a member of the organization known as the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a lady of the highest social rank in Macon, and wherever else the people have knowledge of her she is held in the highest esteem.
591
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
AUSTIN A. CLYMANS.
Until the death of his honored brother, the late William A. Clymans, to whom a memorial tribute is dedicated on other pages of this work, the subject of this sketch was associated with him in the grocery business which he has since conducted in an individual way, being numbered among the representative merchants and influential citizens of the flourishing little city of Bevier, where he has maintained his home since 1891.
Austin A. Clymans was born in Fulton county, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of August, 1849, and was reared and educated in the old Keystone state, where his parents, Robert and Susanna (Woods) Cly- mans, passed their entire lives. As a young man the subject of this review became identified with railroad interests in his native state, where he also taught in the common schools for a time. He learned tlie blacksmith trade under the able direction of his father, and followed the same as a vocation for a number of years. He continued his resi- dence in Pennsylvania until the year of 1891, when he came to Missouri and joined his elder brother, the late William A. Clymans, in the grocery business in Bevier. Since the death of his brother, in 1905, he has successfully continued the enterprise, and his establishment is one of the best of its kind in the city, catering to a large and repre- sentative patronage. Mr. Clymans has made judicions and extensive investments in local real estate, and in this connection is the owner of a number of valuable business buildings in Bevier. He is a stockholder of the State Bank of Bevier, and as a citizen lie is essentially pro- gressive and public-spirited, taking a lively interest in all that touches and advances the general welfare of his home city and county. In politics he is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Repub- lican party and in 1890, while residing at Fulton county, Pennsylvania. he served as United States census enumerator. IIe has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for the past quarter of a century, and in the same his affiliation is now with Fort Littleton Lodge, No. 484, of Fort Littleton, Pennsylvania. Both he and liis wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and they are held in high esteem in the community with whose best social interests and activities they have closely identified themselves.
In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clymans to Miss Virginia Wagner, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania. where their marriage occurred. Concerning the children of this union the following brief record is consistently entered : Susan is a successful
595
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
and popular teacher in the public schools of the state of Kansas, and is at present (1909) located in Whiting, that state; Clarence is employed by the Smith, MeCord & Townsend Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City, this state; Almina is a popular teacher in the public schools of Bevier; and Harriet is attending the home schools, being thirteen years of age at the time of this writing. Capitola a teacher of this county is now at home.
WILLIAM A. CLYMANS.
In the civic and industrial affairs of Macon county the late William A. Clymans played an important part during the many years of his residence here, and he was honored as one of the substantial business men and sterling citizens of the county. He passed the closing years of his life in the city of Bevier, where he died on the 10th of August. 1905, and where he is held in gracious memory by all who were familiar with his generous and worthy life and well directed service as one of the world's workers.
Mr. Clymans was a scion of one of the old and honored families of the Old Keystone state of the Union, and was one of its native sons. He was born in Bedford, now Fulton county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1839 and was a son of Robert and Susanna (Woods) Clymans, both of whom were likewise natives of Pennsylvania, where they passed their entire lives and where the father long followed the sturdy trade of blacksmith. Of the ten children in the family only two are now living. Almira, who is the wife of Thomas L. Marshall of Whiting, Kansas; and Austin A., of Bevier, Missouri. Robert Clymans died in 1889 and his cherished and devoted wife passed to the life eternal in April, 1891.
William A. Clymans, the subject of this memoir, secured his educa- tional discipline in the schools of his native state, and that he made good use of his scholastic opportunities is evident when recognition is taken of the fact that for several years he was a successful and popular teacher in the common schools of his native commonwealth. He tendered his services in defense of the cause of the Union at the time of the Civil war, having enlisted in 1864, as a member of Company H,Two Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and having been appointed as clerk at department headquarters, in which capacity he continued to serve until the close of the war, when he received his honorable dis- charge. As a youth he had learned the blacksmith trade under the direction of his father, and after the termination of his army service he removed to the state of Michigan, where he was employed at his trade for a time. In 1868 Mr. Clymans came to Missouri and located
596
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
in the village of Clarence. Shelby county, whence the later removed to Bevier, with whose business and civie interests he was thereafter iden- tified until his death. Upon taking up his residence in Bevier Mr. Clymans engaged in the grocery business, in which he continued about one year, at the expiration of which he established himself in the gen- eral-merchandise business, in which he continued for a number of years, being one of the leading merchants of the town and controlling a repre- sentative trade, based upon adequate service and npon popular appre- ciation of his sterling integrity and honor. He was a stockholder and director of the State Bank of Bevier.
In politics Mr. Clymans gave a stalwart allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party, in the promotion of which he took a lively interest. He served as justice of the peace for more than twenty years, and this indicates most emphatically the confidence reposed in him by the people of the community. He was also a school director for many terms. Deeply appreciative of the time-honored Masonic fra- ternity, he was affiliated with Bloomington Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, in Bevier, and both he and his wife held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of this city. The maiden name of his wife was Harriet Strunk, she was a widow when he married her, and she too was a native of Pennsylvania, where their marriage was solemnized in 1862. They became the parents of two children, both of whom are deceased, and Mrs. Clymans was summoned to eternal rest in 1889. Mr. Clymans' brother, Austin A., was associated with him in business at Bevier and is the subject of an individual sketch elsewhere in this volume.
V
JOHN F. RICHARDS.
A representative of one of the honored families of Macon county, which has been his home from the time of his nativity, John Franklin Richards is well upholding the prestige of the name he bears and is one of the essentially representative farmers and stock-growers of the county, besides which he is vice-president of the State Bank of Bevier and is known as one of the substantial business men of this favored section of the state. For detailed mention concerning the life of his honored father, the late John Richards, reference may be made to the special memoir to the latter appearing on other pages of this work.
John Franklin Richards was born in Bevier, Macon county, Mis- souri, on the 23rd of September, 1866, and was here reared to maturity, having early begun to assist in the work of his father's farm and having been afforded the advantage of the well conducted public schools
591
HISTORY OF MAACON COUNTY
of the village of Bevier, which is now incorporated as a city. He has continued to be actively identified with the great basic industry of agriculture during his entire business career, and in this important field of enterprise he has been exponent of the most advanced scientific methods and the most progressive policy, so that his success has been on a parity with the splendid forces and energies he has brought to bear. He maintains his home in Bevier and his fine homestead farm, comprising 390 acres, is located about one-half mile south of this city, in Bevier township, being a portion of the fine landed estate accumu- lated by his father. Mr. Richards is one of the principal stockholders of the State Bank of Bevier and is a valued member of its directorate as well as its vice-president, of which latter position he has been incumbent since 1901.
In polities, though never a seeker of official preferment of any description, Mr. Richards is aligned as a staunch supporter of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor ; he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife holds membership in the Welsh Congre- gational church of Bevier, being actively identified with its work.
On the 23rd of September, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Richards to Miss Jennie A. Davis, who was born in Wales and who was a child at the time of her parents' immigration to America. She is the daughter of Edward A. and Ann (Jones) Davis. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have one child, John Franklin, Jr., who was born on the 16th of December, 1897.
JOHN RICHARDS.
The late John Richards long maintained his home is Macon county and he left upon its history the record of a well ordered and beneficent life. He did his share in the development and civic progress of the county, was one of its extensive and essentially representative farmers, and was a man who ever merited and received the unqualified con- fidence and esteem of his fellow men. Ho achieved success and inde- pendence through his own efforts and his loyalty to the land and state of his adoption was ever of the most insistent type. He died on his fine homestead farm, in Bevier township, this county, on the 28th of June, 1898, and in his passing away the county lost one of its most valued and honored citizens,-a man whose character represented those high ideals that are the best and most enduring in the scheme of human thought and action.
John Richards was a scion of a long line of sturdy Welsh ancestors
598
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
and was himself a native of the southern part of Wales, having been born on the Rhyw farm, near Buillt, Radnorshire, on the 14th of October, 1818, so that at the time of his demise he lacked only a few months of being eighty years of age. His parents passed their entire lives in Wales. In the schools of his native land John Richards secured his early educational training and when he was eighteen years of age he located at Dowlais, South Wales, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Watkins. He became one of the substantial citizens and influential business men of that section, having been for nineteen years contractor in the working of the C'wmbargaed coal mine.
In 1862 Mr. Richards came with his family to America and he first located in Pennsylvania, purchasing a farm near Ogdensburg, that state, where he remained two years, at the expiration of which he sold his farm and came to Missouri. He made Macon County his destina- tion and here he purchased a farm, in Bevier township, eventually add- ing to its area until he had a fine landed estate of 390 acres. His energy, progressiveness and excellent business judgment enable him to attain a high degree of success in connection with his farming and stock- growing operations, and he finally gained precedence as one of the lead- ing representatives of the agricultural industry in Macon county. He made substantial improvements on his homestead, including the erection of excellent buildings, and he was a man of too broad intellectuality and too generous and noble spirit to hedge himself in with mere personal advancement, having ever shown a deep interest in all that tended to conserve the material and civie advancement of the county and the moral and educational progress of its people. His first wife died in 1878, at Rome, New York, where they had maintained their home for a brief interval, and of the thirteen children of this union, five attained to years of maturity. The second wife of Mr. Richards died in 1885, leaving no children, and in 1887 was solemnized his marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth Thom, who died in November, 1906. No children were born of the third union.
John Richards was a thorough, practical and progressive business man, and his clear judgment, his promptness, uprightness and decisive action in connection with his business affairs gained to him a large measure of success in temporal affairs, so that he became one of the wealthiest and most successful farmers of the county, while he so ordered his course in all its relations as to retain the inviolable respect and esteem of his fellow men. Mr. Richards was a man of specially deep and sincere religions convictions, and few men in secular life have had a broader and more intimate knowledge of the Bible. For many
599
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
years he was a most zealous worker in the Sunday school and in other departments of religious enterprise, and he was a most earnest and devout member of the Welsh Congregational church. Of the five chil- dren who attained to maturity two are now deceased-Anna, who became the wife of John J. Jones and who died in 1871 ; and Hon. David D. Richards, who was a distinguished citizen of Macon county, which he represented in the legislature in 1885-87 and who died in 1889. The surviving children are : Thomas, who is a successful business man of the city of Butte, Montana ; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Benjamin Howell, of Rock Springs, Wyoming; and John F., of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this volume. Mr. Richards was a Republican in his political proelivities, and while he ever took an intelligent interest in the questions and issues of the day he was never a seeker of public office. He was, nevertheless, a man of influence in his community, and every worthy measure and enterprise projected for the general well- being of his township and county found in him a liberal and ready sup- porter. He made his life count for good in all its relations and his name merits an enduring place on the roll of those who have been numbered among the sterling and valued citizens of Macon county.
LUTHER W. RYALS.
This representative business man and honored citizen of Bevier has passed the major portion of his life in Macon county and is a son of the late William Ryals.
Luther W. Ryals was born in Randolph county, Missouri, and in 1856 his parents removed to Macon county, where he was reared to maturity and where he gained his earlier educational discipline in the public schools, after which he continued his studies in the Missouri State Normal School at Kirksville, for two years. After leaving this institution he put his scholastic acquirements to practical test and utili- zation by turning his attention to the pedagogie profession, in which connection he was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of his native state for a period of four years. In 1882 he located in the village of Callao, Macon county, where he was associated with F. Theodore Mayhew in the general merchandise business for three years, at the expiration of which period, in 1885, he became traveling representative for the Brogher, Force & Goodhuyer Hat Company, of St. Louis, with which important concern he continued for the long inter- val of fourteen years, within which he gained a high reputation as a suc- cessful and popular salesman and formed a wide and representative acquaintance throughout the extended trade territory which he covered.
600
IIISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
He became a stockholder of the company and retained his interest in the same until 1899, when he disposed of his stock and located in the little city of Bucklin, Missouri, where he entered into partnership with Joseph Claybrook in the general mercantile business. This alliance continued for four years, at the expiration of which Mr. Ryals pur- chased the interest of Mr. Claybrook who died that year, and in 1904 lie associated himself with Thomas D. Thomas in the same line of enter- prise in the thriving little city of Bevier, where he has since continued to be identified with the general merchandise business, under the firm name of Ryals & Thomas. The well equipped and admirably stocked establishment of the firm is one that controls a large and substantial trade and the interested principals are known as progressive and liberal business men and public-spirited citizens,-well worthy of the unqualified esteem in which they are held in this community.
In polities Mr. Ryals has been a loyal and zealous supporter of the canse of the Democratic party and has been active in its work in a local way. He has been the candidate of his party for the offices of county clerk and county recorder, but met defeat in each instance, with the remainder of the party ticket in the county. In the spring of 1909 he was elected a member of the city council of Bevier, and he has proved a most valuable and popular member of this municipal body, in which le has made every possible effort to conserve good govermental poli- cies and to further the general interests of his home city. He is affil- iated with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and the Knights & Ladies of Security.
In the year 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ryals to Miss Clela Claybrook, who was born and reared in Macon county and who is a daughter of the late Joseph Claybrook, an honored citizen of this section of the state. Of the two children of this union one is living, Ray, who was born on the 22nd of September, 1890, and who is now associated with his father in business.
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.