USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 69
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In his political allegiance Dr. Webb is found aligned as a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, in whose cause he has rendered effective service. In 1904 he was elected a member of the city council of Macon, as representative of the Second ward, and in 1906 he was chosen as his own snecessor, retiring from office at the expiration of his second term, in 1908. He proved a most progressive and loyal member of the municipal governing body, in which he served three years as chairman of the light and waterworks committee and in which he was for one year chairman of the finance committee. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodge, chapter and com- mandery of the Masonic order, and he has held various official positions in the same, including that of high priest of his chapter, eminent com- mander of Commandery, of which position he was incumbent for three successive terms. He is past exalted ruler of Macon Lodge, No. 999, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is one of the prominent and influential members of the Knights of Pythias in his state. In 1895 he was elected grand outer guard of the Missouri grand lodge of this fraternity, and in 1898 he was honored with election to the office of grand chancellor of the grand lodge. In the following year he was chosen brigadier general of the uniform rank of this order, and within his tenure of this position he was also elected supreme representative of the Supreme Lodge, retaining this incumbency for six years. Since 1902 he has served as surgeon general of the uniform rank of the world. He has done much to promote the interests of the Knights of Pythias
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in Missouri and is one of its influential and popular representatives in the state.
Dr. Webb was married to Emma F. Pickett, at Guysville, Ohio, in 1875. They have had two children : John P., who died in infancy, and Austin Webb, who for fifteen years has been on the stage. At present he is being starred under the Harris management in "The Traveling Salesman."
ALFRED B. MILLER, M. D.
One of the able and popular representatives of the medical profes- sion in Macon county is Dr. Miller, who is engaged in active general practice in the city of Maeon and who is known as a physician and surgeon who is thoroughly fortified for the work of his exacting and humane profession, in which he has gained both success and distinction, being one of its well known representatives in the state and having formerly been a member of the faculty of the medical department of the state university. Aside from his profession Dr. Miller is a business man of marked progressiveness and discrimination, and his capitalistic and industrial interests are of important order.
Alfred Beckett Miller was born on a farm in Liberty township, near. the village of Palmyra, Marion county, Missouri, on the 1st of February, 1852, and is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of this commonwealth, in which he is a representative of the third genera- tion. He is a son of Abdel and Sarah Mary (Jones) Miller, the former of whom was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, in 1818, and the latter of whom was a native of Maryland, where she was born in the year 1828, and whence she came with her parents to Missouri when a child. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Miller was a native of Kentucky and a member of one of the stanch old families of Pendleton county. He came to Missouri in an early day and was one of the pioneers of the state. He first located in St. Louis county, whence he later removed to Marion county, where he improved a farm in the primitive forest, and continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits during the residue of his long and useful life. Abdel Miller was one year old at the time of the family removal to Marion county, where he was reared to man- hood, receiving a good common-school education, and there he continued to devote his attention to farming and stock-growing until his death, which occurred in 1868. He was a man of strong character and dis- tinctive individuality, wielding a large and beneficent influence in his community and ever commanding the unequivocal confidence and respect of his fellow men. Though never consenting to become a candi-
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
date for public office he was thoroughly loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and was a stanch and intelligent supporter of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stood sponsor in his day and generation. During the war between the states he took no active part, but his sympathies were with the south. Both he and his wife, whose deatlı occurred in 1872, were zealous and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. They became the parents of four children of whom one died in infancy ; William G. lives in North Macon; Alfred B. is the immediate subject of this review, and Medora A. is near Palmyra.
Dr. Alfred B. Miller passed his boyhood and youth on the old home- stead farm in Marion county, and his preliminary educational training was secured in the public schools of the community and Palmyra Sem- inary, at Palmyra, after which he attended Central College, at Fayette, this state. for three years. In 1876, having formulated definite plans for his future career, he was matriculated in the historic old Jefferson Medical College, in the city of Philadelphia, in which institution he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1878, receiving liis degree of Doctor of Medicine on the 12th of March of that year and coming forth admirably equipped for the active work of his chosen vocation. Soon after his graduation Dr. Miller located in Shelbyville, Shelby county, Missouri, where he estab- lished himself in the practice of his profession and where he continued to maintain his home for a period of four years, at the expiration of which, on the 14th of June, 1882, he took up his abode in Macon, where he has since been engaged in active general practice as a physician and surgeon and where his success has been of the most unequivocal order, as indicated by the large, lucrative and representative practice which he has long controlled. He has continued a close and appreciative student of both branches of his profession and has kept in touch with the advances made in both medicine and surgery. He holds membership in the American Medical Association and is also a prominent and valued member of both the Missouri State Medical Society and the Macon County Medical Society. He has been an occasional contributor to periodical literature of his profession and has presented valuable tech- nical papers before medical societies, but for eight years he was an influential member of the faculty of the medical department of the University of Missouri, at Columbia, where he held the chair of gynecology.
Dr. Miller has closely identified himself with every legitimate move- ment and enterprise tending to advance the civic and material welfare
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of his home city and county, and as a citizen he is essentially loyal, pro- gressive and public-spirited. He has been president of the Macon Building & Loan Association since 1889; is a stockholder in the Rhea Lead & Zinc Company, of Cartersville, Missouri, and is a stockholder in the Union Sand Company, of St. Louis.
In politics Dr. Miller has ever been aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, but he has never had desire or leisure to enter the arena of "practical politics." In 1901 the gover- nor of Missouri appointed him a member of the board of managers of the state hospital for the insane at Fulton, but he resigned the office after one year's service. In the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with Censor Lodge, No. 172, Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has passed the various official chairs, and also with Macon Chapter, No. 22. Royal Arch Masons. He has been local surgeon for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad for the past thirty years, and in 1893 he was president of the Missouri State Medical Society. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Macon, and are active in the support of the various departments of its work.
On the 9th of October, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Miller to Miss Lillian Rush, who was born in Liberty, Clay county, Mis- souri, and who is a daughter of the late Rev. Lilburn Rush, a representa- tive member of the clergy of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he was in the active work for forty years.
ANDREW EDWIN RILEY.
Among the successful business men and popular citizens contrib- uted to Macon county by the fine old Buckeye state is Andrew Edwin Riley, who is engaged in the real estate business and also identified with agricultural pursuits in the county, where he owns a farm.
Mr. Riley was born on the 12th day of September, 1863, in Allen county, Ohio, and was next to the youngest ehild in a family of nine children. He came with his parents to Macon county in the spring of 1866 and was reared on a farm near Redman, Macon county, and received his early education from the schools at that place. Later on he attended the State University at Columbia, Missouri.
On the 7th of May, 1891, he was married to Miss Lizzie A. Archer, at the home of her parents, Joseph and Phoebe Archer, who were for- merly from Harriettsville, Noble county, Ohio. Mr. Archer was a fifer in the Civil war and a member of the 196th O. V. I.
Mrs. Riley was twelve years of age when coming to Macon county.
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She is a graduate of the Macon High School and taught for a number of years in the county schools as a successful teacher.
Mr. and Mrs. Riley bought a traet of land just north of town in 1902 and have divided it up into suburban homes until at present it forms one of the prettiest parts of town. Mr. Riley still owns a hand- some home and twenty-five acres of land adjoining Macon city.
Mr. and Mrs. Riley have three children, Thehna, born on Septem- ber 16, 1897; Elizabeth, born on July 7, 1901. and Edwin Archer, born on December 28, 1906.
Mr. Riley has devoted most of his life to farming and carpentering. From the time of attaining to his legal majority Mr. Riley has been an active and effectual worker in its local ranks, also a zealous worker in the cause of temperance. In 1898 he was elected constable of Ilud- son township, and as further evidence of public confidence he was appointed to the position of justice of the peace for Hudson township for four years. His administration was a most able and faithful one in this office. Among several positions of importance he is at present acting as deputy sheriff for the county. He takes pride in raising fine fruits and berries and thoroughbred stock and poultry. His father, Leslie P. Riley, was one of Macon county's best known citizens, and this sketch would not be complete without a short sketch of him.
He was born in Burtington county, New Jersey, October 27, 1827. Reared in Allen county, Ohio. His father was Rev. George Riley, a min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal church. Speaking of this learned and able man, his biographer in Ohio says: "Father Riley was one of nature's noblemen, and his face wore the impress of moral excellence. He was a man of fine mental qualities." He was found writing an essay on mental philosophy at the age of ninety years. He was equally at home with the leading theological works of the church. His testa- ment was marked by his own hand as having been read through at the family altar twenty-eight times. He died in 1882 at the age of ninety- one years.
Leslie P. Riley inherited many of the qualities of his father and upon coming to Missouri in its pioneer state he immediately engaged in helping mentally and morally to uplift his community, and to that end spent much of his time in teaching and organizing churches and Sun- day-schools.
On the 27th of October, 1848, he was married to Miss Susanna Cripp, daughter of Henry and Margaret Cripp, of Ohio, but formerly of Richmond, Virginia. In 1863 he was commissioned captain of Com- pany B, First Regiment Ohio Militia. He died September 2, 1897, and
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his wife January 21, 1901. Only five of his children are still living. The subject of this sketch being the youngest of them.
DWIGHT H. PAYSON.
It was within the province of the late Dwight H. Payson to have wielded a large and beneficent influence in connection with civic and business affairs in the city of Macon, to the promotion of whose prog- ress and material prosperity he contributed with all the loyalty of a thoroughly publie-spirited citizen, and he was an exponent of that high type of manhood which ever stands indicatory of usefulness and sub- jective honor. He impressed his strong individuality on the community which so long represented his home, and it is most consonant that in this historical publication be entered a brief tribute to his memory as one of the representative business men of Macon county and as a citizen to whom was ever accorded the unqualified confidence and regard of all who knew him. He was the pioneer insurance man of Macon and here was identified actively with this line of enterprise for nearly two- score years.
Dwight H. Payson was a scion of a family early founded in America and was a native of the state of New York, where he was born in the year 1845. When he was a child his parents removed to the state of Wisconsin, becoming pioneers of Rock county. His father purchased a tract of land near the present city of Janesville, where the son was reared to manhood, duly assisting in the work of the farm and availing himself of such advantages as were offered by the common schools of the locality and period. In 1865, while a young man, he came to Macon, Missouri, and here for a time he devoted his attention to the selling of books, after which he engaged in the general insurance agency, with the conducting of which he was thereafter identified until the time of his death, having been one of the first to here engage specifically in this line of business and having built up a large and representative enter- prise as an underwriter of both fire and life insurance. He devoted thirty-seven years to the insurance business, and the agency which he tlms established is now conducted by his only surviving son.
Mr. Payson was a man of excellent intellectual equipment and inflexible integrity of character, and he occupied a position of promi- nence and influence as one of the progressive business men and loyal citizens of Macon county. He was charitable and tolerant in his judgment of his fellow-men and was over ready to offer succor and sympathetic aid to those in affliction or distress. He was a man of energy and marked business acumen, and upon his career there rests
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. so that he has left to posterity the priceless heritage of a good name and of kindly thought and action. In polities he was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and, while he rendered active and effective aid in the promotion of its interests and in the furtherance of good government in his home county and city, he never aspired to public office nor would he permit the use of his name in this connection. Mr. Payson was summoned to the life eternal on the 20th of October, 1904, and his cherished and devoted wife did not long survive him, as she passed away on the 4th of the following month, so that in death they were not long divided. In the community their loss was felt with a sense of personal bereavement on the part of all who knew them and now that they rest from their labors their memories are revered by those who came within the sphere of their benignant and gracious influence.
In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Payson to Miss Margaret Patton, who was born and reared in Macon county, a daughter of the late Harvey Patton, who was one of the honored pio- neers of this favored section of the state. Of this union were born two sons-Emery H., who died at the age of sixteen years, and Charles H., who succeeded his father in business and who is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume. 1
CHARLES H. PAYSON.
In the thriving little city of his nativity Mr. Payson holds prestige as one of the essentially representative business men of the younger generation and is one of the prominent and popular citizens of Macon, where he conducts the successful insurance business established by his father nearly forty years ago. In the matter of definite accomplishment and high personal integrity Macon county has every reason to be proud of her native sons who are lending their aid in forwarding her indus- trial, commercial and eivic advancement, and such a one is found in the person of him whose name introduces this sketch. Mr. Payson is a man of fine intellectual attainments and marked business acumen, and he stands forward as a citizen of progressive ideas and ntmost fealty and loyalty.
A son of the late Dwight H. Payson, to whom a memoir is dedi- cated on other pages of this work, Charles II. Payson was born in the city of Macon, Macon county, Missouri, on the 4th of January, 1875, and he is now the sole surviving member of the immediate family cirele. To the excellent public schools of his native place he is indebted for his early educational discipline, and after leaving the same he
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entered East Greenwich Academy, at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where he completed the scientific course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1892. In the autumn of the same year he was matricu- lated in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, where he followed the scientific course for the ensuing two years, after which he entered the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895.
Shortly after his graduation Mr. Payson returned to Missonri and assumed a clerical position in the Baird National Bank, of Kirksville, in which institution he continued to be employed until 1902, when he resigned the office of teller and in the same town established himself in the insurance business, to which he there continued to devote his attention until the death of his honored father, in October, 1904, when he returned to Macon county and assumed charge of the large and representative insurance business that had so long been conducted by his father and which he has continned with uninterrupted and cum- lative success, the agency being the oldest and most important of its kind in Macon county and controlling the best class of underwriting in this community.
Alert and progressive as a business man and public-spirited as a citizen, Mr. Payson maintains an abiding interest in all that tends to conserve the welfare of his native city and county, and though, like his father, he has never consented to become a candidate for public office he is known as a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, having been identified with the "grand old party" from the time of attaining his legal majority. He is affiliated with Macon Lodge, No. 74, Knights of Pythias, and is president of the Commercial Club, whose high civic ideals and well ordered functions have been potent in forwarding the material and civic progress of Macon. He and his wife are members of the Macon Presbyterian church, and he is leader of its choir, being especially inter- ested in the "divine art" of music and possessing a well cultivated baritone voice.
On the 24th of December, 1900, Mr. Payson was united in marriage to Miss Lena Trowbridge, who was born and reared in Kirksville, Missouri, and who is a daughter of B. J. Trowbridge, a representative citizen of that place. The two children of this union are Gilbert Trow- bridge, who was born on the 19th of September, 1901, and Charles H., Jr., who was born on the 23rd of May, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Payson are prominent in connection with the social activities of their home city
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and their pleasant home, the old Payson homestead, is recognized as a center of gracious hospitality.
SILAS A. PATTERSON.
One of the aggressive and popular representatives of mercantile interests in the city of Macon is Mr. Patterson, who is here success- fully engaged in the clothing and men's furnishing business and who las here maintained his home since his boyhood days.
Mr. Patterson is a native of Illinois and is a scion of one of the honored pioneers of that commonwealth. He was born at Mount Pulaski, Logan county, that state, on the 5th of Angust, 1861, and is a son of Milton and Jane (Moran) Patterson, the former of whom was born in Logan county, Illinois, and the latter at Milford, Ohio; their marriage was solemnized on the 1st of January, 1844, and of their nine children six are living. The father was reared to manhood in his native county, where he received a fair common school education and where he assisted in the work and management of the home farm during his boyhood and youth. In Illinois he eventually became a successful stock-grower, making a specialty of breeding high-grade horses and training them for turf work. In 1879 he removed with his family to Missouri and took up his residence in Macon, where he continued successful operation in the buying and training of horses. He was a man of marked business aenmen and his genial personality and sterling worth of character gained to him the unqualified confidence and esteem of those with whom he came in contact. He was a loyal and uncompromising supporter of the principles of the Republican party, though he never sought or desired public office of any description. He died in Macon, in November, 1882, and his wife died Angust 19, 1906, at Tyler, Texas.
Silas A. Patterson, the immediate subject of this review, was reared to the age of seventeen years in his native town, to whose excellent public schools he is indebted for his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course of study in the Macon high school. He was seventeen years of age at the time of the family removal to this city, and after leaving school he secured employment as clerk in a local mercantile establishment. In this capacity he was thereafter employed by one firm for eighteen years in Macon and was made manager of the business of the firm of McKee & Smith most of those years, having won this proferment through his ability and his fidelity. With this con- cern he continued to be identified for a period of eighteen years, within which he formed a wide acquaintanceship and gained distinctive per-
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sonal popularity. In 1900 he became a member of the firm of Smith, Haberman & Patterson, dealers in clothing and gents' furnishings, and he retained a third interest in this concern until December 15, 1905, when he sold the same to his partners, and in the following month he purchased the stock and business of the Wallace clothing store and engaged individually in business. His resourcefulness, marked initiative and executive ability, knowledge of business methods, and great personal popularity have been the factors through which he has built up his large and representative enterprise, transforming a busi- ness which had reached the lowest ebb to one of the most important and successful of its kind in this section of the state. His establish- ment is well stocked in all departments and its appointments are of metropolitan order. He caters to a discriminating trade and his store is one noted for its invariable offering of value received on every purchase made.
As a business man and also as a citizen Mr. Patterson is essen- tially progressive, and while he takes a deep interest in all that makes for the advancement and material and social prosperity of his home city and is a stalwart in the camp of the Republican party, although he has never permitted the use of his name in connection with candidacy for public office. He is identified with the local organizations of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and is affiliated with Censer Lodge, No. 172, Free and Accepted Masons, and Macon Chapter, No. 22, Royal Arch Masons, and Emanual Commandery, Knights Templar No. 7. He is a lover of music and has distinctive talent in this direction.
On the 12th of November, 1886, Mr. Patterson was united in mar- riage to Miss Minnie Kingsnorth, who was born in St. Louis and reared in Macon county, and who is a daughter of John W. Kingsnorth, a rep- resentative citizen of the city of Macon. To this nion were born four children, of whom only one is living, Don, who was born in 1896.
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CLAUDE L. POOL.
One of the representative business men and influential citizens of the city of Macon is he to whom this brief review is dedicated. He is here engaged in the general merchandise business, in connection with which he has a large and well equipped establishment. and his personal popularity in the county is shown when it is stated that he has been called upon to serve in the office of county recorder of deeds, of which position he was incumbent for four years. He has been an
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