USA > Missouri > Shelby County > General history of Shelby County, Missouri > Part 30
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
While he was connected with the school system as teacher and commissioner he studied law as a matter of mental disei- pline and source of information, but not as yet with any view to practicing the pro- fession. But in 1900 he determined to become a lawyer in fact and began to de- vote himself to the study with serions- ness and close application. He was ad- mitted to the bar in April, 1903, and since that time he has been actively engaged .in the practice of the profession with a
steadily inereasing clientage and eleva- tion in rank as a practitioner, conducting his professional work in connection with his official duties and enlarging thereby his capacity for them. He also served as a member of the school board three years.
As a means of relaxation from more serions and onerons work and as a source of entertainment and profit to himself, he has always been interested in farming and breeding stock, and is at this time (1911) giving considerable attention to producing a superior strain of registered saddle horses. It is manifest that his contributions to the development and im- provement of the county and state have been and are still extensive, and that his usefulness is well worthy of the high ap- preciation in which it is held. In other lines of endeavor besides those already mentioned he has done his part for the advancement and enjoyment of his fel- low men. In fraternal life he has long held membership in several benevolent societies and devoted a liberal share of his time and energy to their advance- ment. He is a Knight of Pythias, a Knight of the Maccabess, a Modern Woodman of America and a member of the Court of Honor. His religious con- neetion is with the Southern Methodist church and his political activity has al- ways been devoted to the success and welfare of the Democratic party. In the work of both church and party he is zealous and energetic, and is recognized as an important factor, showing wisdom in conneil and great industry and re- sonreefulness in action, his primary con- sideration being the welfare of the canse to which he is attached, his own advance-
23:
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
ment being a matter of secondary or in- cidental importance. It is this patriotic devotion to the general weal that has given him so firm a hold on the regard of the people and rendered his services to them so valuable and satisfactory.
On December 26, 1880, Judge Maupin was married to Miss Emma Chapman, of Monroe county, who is still the light and life of his pleasant home and the center of attraction for their hosts of admiring friends and appreciative acquaintances. Of the nine children which have bright- ened and sanetified their domestie shrine eiglit are living, one having died in in- fancy. Those living are: Elizabeth W., the wife of D. S. Buckman, of Chilli- cothe, Illinois; Minnie Lee, the wife of Arthur Lundin, of Orion, Illinois; Charles Byron and Paul Anderson, resi- dents of Shelbina ; and Anna Matt, Em- ma Ricie, Temple Graves and Bob N., who are still under the parental rooftree.
Judge Maupin has been very success- ful in all his business undertaking's and entirely faithful in the performance of liis official duties in every post of public responsibility he has held. He rauks high in his professon and is elevated and high-toned in his citizenship. He is de- voted to the welfare of the community in which he lives and interested earnestly and practically in the good of its people. Ilis admirable qualities of head and heart, his wide fund of information and mastery and geniality in the use of it and his unvarying grace and gentility of manner, whether as advisor or compan- ion, have united to make him one of the most popular men in the county and give him a well deserved eminence in the state.
THOMAS L. PUCKETT.
Connected with the mercantile and other business interests of Shelbina from the time when he was twenty-one years of age and before that for two years with those of Pilot Grove, in Cooper county, Thomas L. Puckett has passed the whole of his mature life in usefulness to the people of this state, and by the manli- ness of his course, the loftiness of his character, the inflexibility of his integ- rity and his devotion to the welfare of the community in which he lives. has risen to a position of prominence and universal popularity among them. He has been successful in his operations, ac- enmulating a competence for his family and by this means enlarging his own power for good to the town and county and extending its use in the service of the people as rapidly as it increased.
Mr. Puckett was born on September 7, 1864, in Hardeman county, Tennessee. and is a scion of old North Carolina fam- ilies who dwelt in the Old North State from an early period in American his- tory. His grandfather, Leonard A. Puckett, was a native of that state, but left it while he was yet a young man for what was then the wilderness of South- western Tennessee. There he located and passed the remainder of his life profitably engaged in farming and rear- ing his family with the best surroundings and opportunities in life he was able to give it under the eireumstances. His son, Thomas A. Puckett, was born in that sec- tion, his life beginning in Hardeman county on June 4, 1833. He grew to man- hood on the farm, aiding zealously in its arduous labors and helping to make it
238
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
over from an unbroken wild into a culti- vated and well improved farm. But profitable and independent as he found the farmer's industry in that time and locality, he had a taste and found within him capacity for a career of a different kind. He studied medicine, received the degree of M. D. from a medical college, and during all the peaceful years of his subsequent life devoted himself faith- fully to his practice in the region of his nativity. He had been reared in loyalty to the doctrine of state sovereignty, and when he felt that it was assailed by the trend of national politics, in common with most other Southern people, he thought it his duty to resist what he con- sidered dangerous encroachments on the fundamental principles of the govern- ment. Accordingly, at the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confed- erate army and during the continnance of that memorable struggle freely of- fered his life on the altar of his faith.
On June 19, 1860, he was united in marriage with Miss Susan Victoria Ford, who was born in Anderson county, Ken- tucky, in 1849. She shared his struggles and did her part toward winning his snc- cess. And when he felt impelled by his sense of duty to join the army, she did not resist his purpose, but rather forti- fied his convictions and helped him buckle on his armor. She was a woman of strong determination and purpose. After being left a widow she moved to Shelhina and taught in public schools of Shelhina for fourteen years. Of their offspring, which numbered five, namely : Jeremiah D., Thomas L., Charles F., Basil D., Mary A., their son Thomas, the immediate subject of this memoir, is the
only one now living and the only sur- vivor of his family. The father died at lis Tennessee home on April 17, 1872. The mother and the four last named children then moved to Shelbina, where she died on April 26, 1892. She was a true and devoted Christian of the Baptist church, of which she had been a member for many years. Basil D. and Mary A. died soon after moving to Shelbina; Jeremiah D. died in Tennessee ; Charles F. grew to manhood in Shelbina.
Thomas L. Puckett obtained his early scholastic training in the public schools of Shelbina and completed the education begun in them at the Shelhina Collegiate Institute and the college at Pilot Grove, in Cooper county. After completing the conrse at Pilot Grove he passed a year in attendance at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and in 1882 began his mercan- tile career as a clerk in a drug store at Pilot Grove. Some time later he bought the business of his employer, W. F. White, and during the next two years he conducted it himself. At the end of that period he sold it and returned to Shelbina, where for three years he was one of the proprietors of a flourishing grocery. In time be sold his interest in this establishment and in 1894 began operating in real estate, loans and in- surance in company with Charles B. Martin, under the name and style of Puckett & Martin. The firm is still in business and carrying on extensively. It is recognized as one of the leading ones in the line in this part of the state. and has a high reputation for integrity and business enterprise and progressive- ness.
Mr. Puckett is interested, also, in other
239
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
business undertakings, being one of the stockholders in the Commercial Bank of Shelbina and owning and managing con- siderable real estate in business proper- ties in the city and farm lands in Shelby and other counties. On June 28, 1888, he was married to Miss Ida M. Lyell, who was born and reared in Shelby county. They have two children, their sons, Thomas Lyell, born in Shelbina, August 27, 1891, and Charles E., born in Shelbina June 12, 1893, both of whom are still liv- ing at home with their parents.
Mr. Puckett has long been one of the leading and most active promoters of the development and improvement of the town and county. In 1906 he was elected mayor of Shelbina, and for a year he gave the city an excellent business administra- tion of its affairs. But owing to the fail- ing condition of the health of one of his sons (Charles), lie resigned in 1907 and took the young man to California for the winter. During that year, while out driving, he was thrown from his buggy and sustained a broken leg. The fracture did not yield readily to treatment and the limb had to be amputated on account of dangerous complications. But not- withstanding his crippled condition, he still takes an active part in his business and the affairs of the community. He is a Democrat in political faith and a Southern Methodist in church connec- tion and takes a leading place in the work of both his party and his elureh.
HALLEY THOMAS WILLIS, M. D.
To no other class of professional men is it given to administer so directly and completely to the comfort and happiness
of mankind as to physicians. They deal with all kinds of human ailments, both mental and physical, and are called upon to render services as wide in range as human suffering and human sorrow, and are often the only persons who can do it. To how many persons a country phy- sician in active practice supplies aid in distress, hope in gloom, comfort in ago- ny, solace in sorrow and even consolation in death, it would be idle to guess at. He is required to have a strong combination of qualities for his work, of which his professional and technical requirements are but a small part, and the necessity for their activity is always at hand, the reservoir is always on draft. Among the physicians of northern Missouri Dr. H. T. Willis, of Shelbina, occupied high rank for the full possession of these qual- ifications and the skillful use of them.
Dr. Willis was born in Monroe county, this state, on July 3, 1864. He came of Kentucky stock, both of his parents, Samuel Pierson and Elizabeth (Thomas) Willis, having been born and reared in that state. The father's life began in April, 1825, in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where his father, John Pierce Willis, was a manufacturer of wagons and carriages until 1851, when he and his family moved to Missouri, located in Monroe county and engaged extensively in farming and raising live stock. The grandfather died in 1874. The doctor's father farmed in his native county until the Western fever took possession of him and in 1851 he too came to this state and located on a farm in Monroe county. He raised stock in considerable numbers on his farm and dealt extensively in mules, at that time a nearly new article of sale
240
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
and production in this part of the state. In 1868 he sold his farm in Monroe county and bought one in this county, on which he lived and labored until 1885, when he moved to Shelbina, determined to pass the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of the rest he had so well earned and the competence he had so laboriously acquired. He sold his farm and resided here until his death, October 30, 1904. In 1852 he married Miss Eliza- beth Thomas, a native of Nelson county, Kentucky. They had two children. The father was a zealous and energetic Dem- ocrat in politics and a devont and loyal Baptist in religious affiliation. He gave a great deal of his time and energy to church work, in which his services were recognized as most effective and valn- able. The wife and mother died in July. 1903.
Dr. H. T. Willis obtained his scholastic training in the public schools of Shelbina and at the Shelbina Collegiate Institute, which latter he attended five years. His professional studies were pursued in pri- vate reading and at the University Med- ical College, of Kansas City, which he entered in 1895, and from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1898. During his period of study at this institution he was first assistant to Dr. C. W. Adams, an eminent physician of the western Missouri metropolis. in his private practice, and the training he re- ceived through this experience was both extensive and thoroughly practical.
After receiving his degree the doctor took up his residence in Shelbina and en- tered at once on the active practice of his profession. He made that city his home and was industriously engaged in
a general practice which grew steadily in magnitude from year to year, as he had the esteem and confidence of the people and the regard of his professional col- leagues. He was a close and reflective student of the literature of his profes- sion, keeping abreast with its advance- ment and in touch with its latest thought and discoveries. He also took an active part in the societies organized for its improvement, being a valued and helpful contributor to the deliberations of the state and county medical associations, to both of which he belonged. He was also medical examiner for the Knights of the Maccabees and International Life Insur- ance Company of St. Louis. In 1902 he was appointed county physician and he served as such until his death. February 25, 1910.
Politically the doctor was a firm and energetic Democrat. He was always in- terested in the welfare of his party and did effective work in helping it to success in all its contests. Fraternally lie be- longed to the Masonic order. Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern Woodmen of America. His church connection was with the Baptist sect. On December 29, 1904, he was united in marriage with Miss Mamie J. Lamb. of Port Republic, Virginia. In the cultivated social circles of Shelbina she had ample scope for the exemplification of the mental force. deli- cacy of feeling and grace of manner she inherited from long lines of Virginia an- rostry and abundant opportunity to em- ploy her faculties in connection with those of her husband in promoting the general welfare of the community in which they both felt an earnest and con- tinuing interest. They were hospitable
241
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
in their home, helpful to every mental and moral agency at work among the people and zealous in the performance of every social and religious duty.
CHARLES BOGGS MARTIN.
Actively connected with the real estate and loan business in Shelbina for twenty consecutive years, and for six years prior to his entrance into that line one of the leading fire insurance agents of the city, county and surrounding country, Charles B. Martin has had an extensive oppor- tunity to demonstrate his capacity for business and his right to the confidence and esteem of the people who have the pleasure of his acquaintance and the ad- vantage of doing business with him. He is now the junior member of the firm of Puckett & Martin, real estate and loan operators, and as such enjoys in a high degree the regard and good will of the community.
Mr. Martin is a Virginian by nativity, having been born at Lexington, Rock- bridge county, in the Old Dominion, on March 28, 1853. His ancestors lived for generations in the state that is known as the "Mother of States and of States- men," his grandfather, James Wesley Martin having been born and reared there, and having had before him a long line of progenitors born and reared in the same neighborhood, which was Greenbrier county, in that part of the state now known as West Virginia, which was torn from its maternal breast in the violence and unreason of the Civil war.
Mr. Martin, the interesting subject of this brief review, is a son of James Wes- ley and Nannie O. (Green) Martin, the
former born and reared in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, where his life be- gan in 1812, and the latter a native of Rockbridge county, in the mother state. The father farmed for a number of years in West Virginia and became a resident of Missouri in 1869, reaching the state in November of that year. He located in Marion county and there farmed and raised live stock until 1883, when he sold his interests in that county and moved to Shelby county, purchasing a farm there and continuing to operate it until his death, in September, 1886, carrying on at the same time an active and flourish- ing business in raising live stock, and thereby contributing to the improvement of the stock 'in the county and aiding in supplying, by the excellence of his prod- nets, the best markets in the country.
He was married to Miss Nannie O. Green, of Rockbridge county, Virginia, who is still living at the advanced age of eighty-nine, with all her faculties yet vigorous and her sinews strong. They became the parents of twelve children, seven of whom are living-Alexander J., a resident of Rockbridge county, Vir- ginia ; William P., who lives at Moberly, Missouri : Reuben L., a citizen of Wash- ington, D. C .; Charles B., whose interest- ing life story these paragraphs record: Samnel S. and Albert A., residents of this county; and Emmett, who lives in the state of California. In polities the father was a Democrat and in church re- lations a Southern Methodist. He was an active worker in both his party and his church and was esteemed by the mem- bers of each as a helpful factor in all their undertakings.
Charles B. Martin, like the majority of
242
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
the boys of his day, was reared and learned the lessons of preparation for life's battle on a farm. He took his place in the ranks of its workers and wrought as faithfully and efficiently as any of them. He obtained his education in the private schools of Lexington, Virginia, which is an educational center in that part of the country, being the seat of Washington and Lee University, in whose presidential chair the great gen- eral of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, passed the closing years of his illustrious life, and also the Virginia Military in- stitute. But, although the city in which he gained his scholastic training was abundantly supplied with facilities for culture far beyond the enrriculum of the public schools, they were available to him only in a limited way, and he was obliged to put up with what the great "university of the common people," the district schools, could do for him in the way of mental development. For the exigencies of his situation required that he should make his own way in the world of effort from an early age and he en- tered upon the undertaking without re- luctanee or repining.
After leaving school Mr. Martin worked on the parental farm with his father until 1873, assisting him both in the state of his nativity and that of his adoption. In the year last named he turned his attention to mercantile life, for which he had long felt a yearning, and became a grocer, carrying on a vig- orons and flourishing business in that line for six years. Still, although he found mercantile life agreeable, the love of the soil was strong within him, and in 1880 he returned to the eulitvation of it,
buying a farm near Oakdale, in this county, on which he lived and labored two busy years, producing good erops and raising fine herds of stock. In 1882 he moved to Shelbina and took up work for the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company in association with W. F. Fields, with whom he operated for six years. Then in 1889 he bought the interest of Upton Moreman in the firm of Lyell & More- man, real estate and loan agents, and be- came a partner of John R. Lyell, under the name and style of Lyell & Martin. In May, 1894, Thomas L. Puckett, a sketch of whom will be found in this vol- ume, hought Mr. Lyell's interest in the business and the firm has done an exten- sive business ever since under the name of Puckett & Martin.
Mr. Martin has therefore been con- nected in a leading way with the real es- tate and loan business for twenty consec- utive years, and in that long experience has thoroughly mastered all its phases, details and requirements. During much of the time he has also been extensively engaged in the feeding and sale of 150 to 200 mules every year, thereby contribut- ing greatly to the convenience and ad- vantage of the farmers and other resi- dents of the city and county.
In the political life of his section he has taken an earnest and serviceable part as a leading and influential Democrat. Although averse to publie office, he filled one term of four years as a justice of the peace and has also been a member of the school board. Fraternally he is a Free- mason and to the cause of religion he renders effective service as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which he is a trustee and was for five
REV. J. H. WOOD
243
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
years or longer superintendent of the Sunday school. In other departments of church work he has been constant in his service and enterprising in his spirit, giving every worthy undertaking of his congregation his valuable counsel and in- valuable assistance in practical labor. During all of the last fifteen years he has been one of the stockholders and direc- tors of the Commercial Bank of Shelbina. On March 2, 1873, he was married to Miss Nannie E. Jones, of Marion county, in this state. They have had five chil- dren and all of them are living. They are : May J., a resident of Shelbina ; Jes- sie, the wife of Otis See, of the same city ; and Eugene H., of St. Louis, Missouri; Charles Robert and John Lyell, who are living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Martin and their children add adornment and grace to the social circles of the com- munity and on all sides are recognized as among the best and most representative and estimable citizens of a section in which the standard is high and the re- quirements are exacting.
JOHN H. WOOD.
This eminent banker and influential financial potency of Shelbina has been a resident of Missouri all of his life, and during the most of that period has been active in lines of endeavor which min- ister directly to the welfare of the people and help to build up the state in its in dustrial, mercantile and commercial power, some of them also bearing imme- diately and favorably on the mental and moral agencies at work in every com- munity.
Mr. Wood controls the policy of the
Shelbina National Bank and is its lead- ing spirit of enterprise and direction. He was born in Monroe county, this state, on December 8, 1869. He is a son of Winfield S. and Snsan A. (Hepler) Wood, the former a native of New York and the latter of Ohio. The father was a carpenter and farmer. He came to Monroe county in 1859 and from that time until a few years ago devoted his energies to farming, doing some work also at his trade when occasion demand- ed it. During the Civil war he served as a soldier in the Ninth Missouri Cav- alry, Company F, of which he was one of the lieutenants. He and his command were stationed most of the time in Mis- souri, but they saw a great deal of active service and were engaged in numerous battles and skirmishes. Mr. Wood was in the army from 1861 to the close of the memorable struggle in 1865, and during all of the time of his military service devoted himself wholly to the cause which he had esponsed. After the close of the war he returned to his home and resumed his farming operations. A few years ago he retired from active pursuits and took up his residence in Shelbina, where he now lives. His wife died in that town. They had two sons and two daughters, all of whom are living. The father is a scion of an old English fam- ily, his branch of which has lived in this country for several generations.
J. H. Wood was reared and began his education in Monroe county. He also attended the University of Missouri, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the degree of L. B. He was pastor of the Christian church at Boonville, Cooper county, two years, and taught in
244
HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
Christian College at Columbia, Missouri, during his pastorate. In 1897 he moved to Shelbina and became pastor of the Christian church, which position he still fills. Was associated with Messrs. Thomas & Gillespie in the abstract busi- ness for three years, the firm being known as Wood, Thomas & Gillespie. In 1907 he became interested in the bank, to which his time has since been largely devoted. He is also president of the Shelbina Telephone Company, which he founded and incorporated in the autumn of 1908. In politics he is a Republican, but he has never been an active partisan or filled or desired a public office. His fraternal allegiance is given to the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic Order, in the latter of which he has risen to the degree of the Royal Arch. During the whole of his residence in Shelbina he has served as pastor of the Christian church, doing a great work for the congregation and building it up from a membership of 100 to one of 250. He is now engaged in the erection of a new church edifice which will be com- pleted at an early date. He is much es- teemed in church circles as well as in business relations, and illustrates in every walk in life the best attributes of an elevated, progressive and high- minded American citizenship.
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.