USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 66
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 the matter of material acquisitions Mr. Barker has been as suc- cessful as he is distinguished in his professional work and his public services. His residence is one of the most imposing and attractive in the county and it is as renowned for its refined and generous hospitality as it is for its architectural beauty, artistic landscape surroundings and interior equipment and adornment. In the fraternal life of the com- munity around him he has long been active, prominent and influential. He is a Freemason of the thirty-second degree and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. As a member of the Presbyterian church he has been for years a very active worker in the moral and religious field, delivering many lectures on the Bible as view from a legal standpoint. All his triumphs are the results of his own capabilities and efforts, and the people give him full eredit for his achievements, holding him in high esteem as one whom Fortune has never favored, but who has hewed out of his own opportunities and shaped even adverse circumstances to his purposes and made everything minister to the general weal as well as to his own advantage.
EDWARD ELIAS.
One of the representative business men and honored citizens of Bevier is he whose name initiates this paragraph and who has been a resident of Missouri for more than forty years.
Mr. Elias was born in Llanidloes, Wales, in the year 1850, and is a son of Edward Elias, Sr., who immigrated to America when the sub- ject of this sketch was a child, locating in Pomeroy, Ohio, and passing
630
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
the residue of his life in the old Buckeye state, as did also his wife. He rendered loyal service to his adopted country as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which conflict he served as a member of a battery in the Seventh Ohio Light Artillery. Edward Elias, Jr., was reared to maturity at Pomeroy, Ohio, in whose public schools he secured his carly educational training, and in 1868, when eighteen years of age, he came to Missouri, where he was identified with mining operations, principally in Macon county, for a period of twenty years. For the ensuing sixteen years he was employed as clerk in the drug store of Rowland Brothers, of Bevier, and in 1904 he here established himself in the retail shoe business, in which he has since continued and in con- nection with which he has built up a trade of substantial and repre- sentative order, giving him prestige as one of the leading business men of the thriving little city in which he has so long maintained his home. In politics he is aligned as a supporter of the Republican party, and in a fraternal way he is identified with the local organization of the Woodmen of the World.
In 1875 Mr. Elias was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Hughes, who was born in Wisconsin and who died in 1882, being survived by three children,-Alfred, Zella and Roscoe. In 1884 Mr. Elias wedded Mrs. Lenora S. (Davis) Hughes, widow of Joseph R. Hughes, of Bevier, concerning whom more definite mention is made in the sketch of the career of his son, John G. Hughes, on other pages of this work. Three children were born of this second marriage,-and the first child, Edgar, died at the age of five years. The two living are Raymond and Lenora, both of whom remain at the parental home. Mr. and Mrs. Elias are members of the First Congregational church. Mr. Elias's mother is still living and makes her home in Bevier, aged seventy-nine years.
ROWLAND BROTHERS.
One of the representative mercantile firms of the thriving village of Bevier is that whose title initiates this paragraph and whose inter- ested principals, in order of seniority, are Dr. Daniel D., Dr. William P. and Thomas J. Rowland. The three brothers are numbered among the most influential and honored citizens of Macon county and are well upholding the prestige of the name which they bear. Their father was a man who did much for the civic and material upbuilding of Bevier, where his memory is revered as that of a man of impregnable integrity and as one whose life, in all its relations, was ordered upon the loftiest
631
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
plane of honor and usefulness. His patent of nobility came from the highest of authority, being based upon sterling character.
Daniel Rowland, father of the three brothers noted as member of the firm of Rowland Brothers, was a native of Wales, where he was reared to manhood and received limited educational advantages. There also was born his loved and gracious wife, whose maiden name was Mary Price. Their marriage was solemnized at Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania. Both parents came to the United States at about the age of nineteen and eighteen years. None was ever more appreciative of the institutions and advantages offered in our great American republic than these worthy folk, who came as strangers in a strange land, and their loyalty was of the most insistent type, so that they never had anghit of desire to return to their native land. They first located in the southeastern part of Ohio, on the banks of the Ohio river, and about two years after there taking up their abode the father joined the valiant band of argonauts making its way across the plains to the gold fields of California, -- then considered a new Eldorado. Daniel Rowland left his young wife and their first born child, Daniel D., in Ohio and after remaining four years in California he returned to his loved ones. Through arduous toil he finally was successful in his quest for gold. He and his three partners tunneled deeply into a mountain and finally developed the Christie mine, which at one time was considered the richest in California ; located at Portwine, north of San Francisco.
In 1865 Daniel Rowland removed with his family from Ohio to Bevier, Missouri, which was then a mere coal-mining camp, with not more than one hundred and fifty population. Here he opened a small general-merchandise store and later, at the solicitation of the coal company, he purchased the company's store, which he conducted about three years, at the expiration of which he sold the same to the com- pany, whose request that this transfer be made was tantamount to a command, as the company practically controlled all property in the little village. Mr. Rowland's health had become much impared and he was not again actively engaged in business until 1882, when he established a lumber business, in which he continued until his death, in 1893, at which time he was sixty-three years of age. His devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1886, at the age of fifty-four years. Both were zealous members of the Congregational church and in polities he gave a staunch allegiance to the cause of the Republican party,
Daniel Rowland was a man of fine intellectual powers and through well directed reading and study he effectually made good the handicap
632
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
of his somewhat meager educational training in his youth. He com- bined excellent judgment and foresight with marked business aenmen, and his success was won by legitmate means and in normal lines of enterprise. He was essentially progressive and publie-spirited as a citizen, kindly, generous and philanthropie, and no man has ever held a more secure place in popular confidence and esteem in the village of Bevier. At the time of the incorporation of the village he became president of its first board of Trustees and he held this office for a number of terms, within which he maintained a progressive poliey and did much to further the best interests of the community. He con- tributed liberally to the support of religious and benevolent causes and his private charities, now known to be numerous, were in his life extended so unostentatiously as to be known to the recipients only. Provisions for the continuance of many of his charities was made by him before his death and only a short time ago did the last of these cease.
Daniel D. Rowland is a graduate of St. Louis Medical College, graduating with the class of 1884. He was married June 1, 1886, to Miss Elizabeth A. Evans of Bevier. They have two children : Wm. A. and Eva A.
Daniel D. Rowland has inherited much of his father's marked busi- ness ability and has been most successful in the administration of the large and important enterprise controlled by the firm of which he is the eldest member. Te firm conduets the leading drug and hardware store of Bevier and the same is metropolitan in its equipment and facilities. Daniel D. Rowland has been president of the State Bank of Bevier from the time of its organization, and the Bevier Building & Loan Association had a most presperous and beneficient existence under his executive guidance. The fine Odd Fellows' Temple in Bevier was brought into existence mainly through his suggestion and financial support, and represents the tangible results of his able handling of the fiscal affairs of the fraternity in this village. His capacity as a financier is thoroughly recognized and his advice is much sought by other business men, who thus indicate their confidence in his judgment. Hle was born in Pomeroy, Ohio, on the 17th of December, 1854, and received his education mainly in the public schools of Bevier, which has represented his home from his boyhood days. He was married June 1, 1893, to Miss Alice H. Kealey of Hannibal, Missouri. They have one child living, Helen Price.
Dr. William P. Rowland, the second of the three brothers con-
633
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
stituting the firm of Rowland Brothers, was born at Pomeroy, Ohio, on the 24th of May, 1861, and his time and attention are given primarily to the work of his profession, in which he has gained prestige as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Macon county. He was graduated in St. Louis Medical College, in the city of St. Louis, as a member of the class of 1888, and is a man of high literary and professional attainments. Though essentially loyal and publie-spirited as a citizen he has not consented to become a candidate for office save on one occasion, when he was elected mayor of Bevier, in which position he gave a most liberal and effective administration of the municipal government. He held the office for one term (two years) and within his regime the city hall was erected. He pushed forward the promotion of this important enterprise in the face of strong opposition, but the wisdom of his course is now thoroughly recognized by all of those who were most strennous in their efforts to thwart the project. He has served as president of North Missouri Medical Association in 1906. He is a member of the County Medical Society and North Missouri Medical Association, Missouri State Medical Association, American Medical Association and of the St. Louis City Hospital Alumni.
Thomas J. Rowland, the youngest of the three brothers, has given his attention more especially to the lumber business founded by his father, and under his direction the enterprise has been made most suc- cessful. He has given much consideration to publie, religions and . philanthropie causes, which he has supported with much of discrim- ination and generosity. The largest church edifice in the city, that of the First Congregational church, was erected largely through his energy and liberality, and his contributions to other worthy causes have been equally beneficent. He is a member of the board of education of Bevier and has shown much zeal in bringing the public schools of the city up to the highest standard of efficiency, placing them on the approved list of the state university and other leading academic institutions. He is a native of Bevier, Missouri, where he was born on the 10th of March, 1873.
He was married December 26, 1900, to Jemima Thomas, and to that union three children were born, as follows: Horald D., Ruth Louise and Mary Frances.
The Rowland brothers are all aligned as loyal supporters of the cause of the Republican party and as liberal and progressive citizens they well merit the popular confidence and esteem so uniformly accorded them. Thomas J. Rowland died in the Spring of 1910.
631
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY THOMAS E. WISDOM.
As a business man and public official of Macon county Mr. Wisdom has long held a position of prominence and influence, and he commands the unequivocal confidence and esteem of the people of his native county. He now maintains his home in the city of Macon, of whose municipal council he is a valued member, besides which he is now serving (1909) as secretary of the county committee.
Thomas Eugene Wisdom was born in Macon county, Missouri, on the 14th of June, 1867, and is a son of William L. and Martha F. (Sentchfield) Wisdom, who are now dead. William L. Wisdom was born at Huntswell, Missouri, on the 3d of January, 1842, and was there reared and educated. As a young man he located in the city of St. Louis, where he was engaged in the tobacco business for two years, at the expiration of which he removed to Macon county, where he became a successful farmer. His old homestead, which comprises 120 acres, is located about two miles north of the city of Macon. He was one of the well known and highly honored citizens of the county and was a man whose life was characterized by the most signal integrity of pur- pose. He never had aught of ambition for public office but was a loyal advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party. He was affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees and he and his wife held membership in the Presbyterian church. Their marriage was solemnized in 1864 and Mrs. Wisdom is a native of Macon county,-a member of an honored pioneer family of this section of the state. Of the two children the subject of this review is the younger, and Minnie L., who is the widow of Ehner L. English. The father died November 6, 1906 and the mother on June 12, 1907.
Thomas E. Wisdom was reared to maturity in Macon county, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early educational training. When seventeen years of age he went to Kansas, where he passed one year, engaged in farm work, and in 1885 he returned to Macon county and took up his residence in the city of Macon, where he was employed for the ensuing year by the Massey Wagon Company. In 1886 he entered the employ of the firm of Riley & Reed, proprietors of the Macon marble works, and about one year later he purchased Mr. Riley's interest in the enterprise, which was thereafter conducted under the firm name of Wisdom & Reed until 1890, when Mr. Wisdom purchased his partner's interest and assuned full control of the business, which he thereafter conducted successfully until 1898, when he sold the plant.
In 1903 Mr. Wisdom engaged in the real-estate business, and since
635
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
1905 he has had as his able coadjutor in this enterprise Mr. Oscar San- dusky. The firm, whose title is Wisdom & Sandusky, has operated suc- cessfully and upon an extensive scale, as is evident when recognition is had of the well authenticated fact that the firm has handled more land and closed more important deals than any other of its kind in the county. On its books are at all times to be found represented most desirable investments in both city property and farming lands and the business is conducted according to the highest principles of fairness and integrity. Mr. Wisdom is a recognized authority in the matter of real estate values in Macon county, owing to his previous service in the office of recorder of deeds.
Mr. Wisdom has been a zealons worker in behalf of the cause of the Democratic party and is one of its leaders in Macon county. In 1897 Governor Stephens conferred upon him the appointment of state oil inspector for this county, and in 1898 he was elected county recorder of deeds, of which office he continued incumbent four years. In 1906 he was elected a member of the county committee and after his re-election, in 1908, he was made secretary of the body, of which position he is now in tenure. His term of office will expire in 1910. In 1907 Mr. Wisdom was elected a member of the city council and he still holds this office, besides which he is a member of the road commission of Hudson town- ship. He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church, and he is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Court of Honor.
In February, 1889, Mr. Wisdom was united in marriage to Miss Margaret E. Wood, who was born and reared in Macon, a daughter of Wm. M. Wood, and they became the parents of tive children, of whom four are living,- Ralph, Emily, Mildred and Thomas. Lloyd died at the age of three years.
v
WILLIAM E. MeCULLY.
In tracing the history of lives conspicnous for achievement the most interesting feature of the study is to find the key to the success thus gained. The more critically exact this study becomes, the more convineingly certain it is that the key is in the personality of the man himself. Usually the men who achieve most, do it against the very obstacles before which other men succumb. They gain it not more through natural gifts than from the rallying of the full forces of mind and body into the service of their purposes. Ho whose name initiates this sketch has admirably illustrated in his career the power of con-
636
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
centrating the resources of the entire man and lifting them to the plane of great material achievement; of supplementing excellent natural endowments by close application, impregnable integrity and marked tenacity of purpose. Along the manifold lines in which he has directed his energies and abilities he has made of success not an accident but a logical result. He has conquered adverse forces and has gained precedence as one of the representative business men and influential citizens of his native state. He maintains his home in the city of Macon, and his loyalty to the same has been manifested in divers lines of helpful enterprise and in the support of worthy measures.
William Early MeCully was born on a farm near Bloomington, Macon county, Missouri, on the 16th of June, 1853, and as on other pages of this publication is entered a memorial tribute to his honored father, the late Henderson MeCully, it is not necessary to further review the family history in the present article. Mr. MeCully was reared to maturity in the city of Bloomington, where his father was a representative business man, and there he was afforded the advantages of the excellent common schools, including the high school. He initiated his association with the practical activities of life when a mere boy, but he was eventually enabled to carry forward his high educational work, which was completed by a course in Central College, at Fayette, Mis- souri, in which institution he was a student in 1868-9. When but fourteen years of age he began service as train boy on the line of the North Missouri, now Wabash, Railroad, and after leaving college he became associated with his father in the control and operation of a lum- ber camp at Sioux City, Missouri. Though he went to that place with- out capitalistic resources other than the equipment provided by his father, within six years he had become the owner of the entire village, including buildings and business enterprises. In 1881 Mr. MeCully removed to Atlanta, Missouri, where he engaged in the general mer- chandise business. In April of the following year, during the general financial panic in that locality, he met with financial reverses which left him withont a dollar but with an unblemished reputation and unflinching courage. The leading business men of the county prac- tically all deserted the place, but he remained, and by energy and deter- mination partially recouped his losses within the ensuing few months. In 1883 he assumed the position of traveling saleman for a wholesale clothing house in the city of Cincinnati, and one year later he became a stockholder and traveling representative of the Warfield Grocery Company, of Quiney, Illinois, with which he continued to be identified for the ensuing six years, within which he made advancement to a
637
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
position as one of the principal stockholders in the concern, to the upbuilding of whose business he had contributed in large measure.
In 1890 Mr. McCully sold his interest in the business just men- tioned and took up his residence in Macon, the thriving little capital city of his native county. Here he purchased the Palace hotel, which he conducted for the ensuing thirteen months, at the expiration of which lie sold the property, upon advantageous terms. In 1891 he became associated with Messrs. Thomas E. Wardell and Harry M. Rubey in the ownership of the Macon Gas & Electric Light & Power Company and with this important public utility in his home city he has been actively concerned during the intervening years. Since 1897 he lias held the offices of secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Macon Gas & Electric Light Company. Of the same triplicate executive office he is also incumbent with the Northwestern Electric Heat & Power Company, of Kearney, Nebraska, the Palmyra Light & Water Com- pany, of Palmyra, Missouri ; the Rhea Lead & Zinc Company, of Jasper county, this state ; the Ward-Mere Mineral Company, of Jasper county, Missouri; the Wardell-McCully Orchard Company; and the Macon Publishing Company.
In 1893, still associated with Messrs. Wardell and Rubey, Mr. McCully was interested in the installing of electric plants in Mexico and Marshall, Missouri; of similar plants in Kearney, Nebraska, in 1901, and in Palmyra, Missouri, in 1902. He has been identified with lead and zinc mining enterprises in Jasper county, this state, since 1904, and he is still concerned in the various other enterprises noted in this paragraph. In 1899 Mr. MeCully effected the organization of the Wardell-McCully Orchard Company and which represents the most extensive enterprise of the kind in North Missouri. The company owns an orchard of twenty-five thousand trees, located one mile north of the city of Macon,-a section admirably adapted for the cultivation of the best types of fruit. Mr. MeCully was one of the organizers and incorporators of the State Exchange Bank, of Macon, of which substantial and popular institution he has been a director from the time of its inception.
As an alert man of affairs and as a loyal and public-spirited citizen, Mr. MeCully has not hedged in his interests in the demands of his extended and varied business connection, but has ever stood ready to lend his influence and tangible aid in the promotion of enterprises and measures tending to advance the general welfare of his home city and native county. In polities lie accords an unqualified allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party and in the same he has given zealous and
638
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
effective service. In 1899 he was elected a member of the state board of railroad and warehouse commissioners, and, nothwithstanding the exactions of his private business interests, he rendered most efficient service in this office, of which he continued incumbent for six consecutive years. He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and since 1894 he has been president of the official board of the church of this denomination in Macon. He has attained to the chivalrie degrees in the time-honored Masonie fraternity and is past eminent commander of Emmanuel Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templars, of Macon. He is also affiliated with the Macon lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.
On the 5th of March, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McCully to Miss Georgia E. MeCully, who was born and reared in Shelby county, Missouri, and who is a daughter of the late William McCully, a representative citizen of that section of the state. Mr. and Mrs. MeCully have three children,-Gertrude, who is the wife of Fred- erick H. Tedford, editor of the Macon Times-Democrat ; Velma Engenia, who is the wife of Waldo F. Smith, of Macon; and Harry, who remains at the parental home. The family is prominent and popular in con- nection with the social and church activities of Macon, and the beautiful home is one in which a gracious hospitality is ever in evidence.
HENDERSON McCULLY.
It is most consonant that in this publication be entered a memoir to the late Henderson MeCully, who was one of the honored pioneers and influential citizens of Macon county, with whose civic and indus- trial progress he was intimately identified during the course of a long and peculiarly active and successful business career. The city of Macon represented his home at the time of his death, and when he was called from the scene of life's activities the entire community manifested a sense of personal loss and bereavement.
Mr. MeCully was born in Powell's Valley, Tennessee, on the 24th of January, 1819, and he met his death as the result of an accident in one of his lumber camps, at Peach Orchard, Arkansas, in 1887. His remains were interred in the cemetery of his home city, where also rest those of his cherished and devoted wife, who was summoned to eternal rest in 1906. Mr. MeCully gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native state and when he was a lad of about ten years, in 1829, his parents removed from Tennessee to Mis- souri and settled in Howard county, where he was reared to maturity
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.