USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 100
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most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opin- ion. He has ever manifested a deep and sin- cere interest in community affairs and for three sessions represented his district in the state legislature of Missouri.
A native son of Perryville, Missouri, Charles E. Kiefner was born on the 25th of November, 1869, and he is a scion of an old and honored German family, his father, John Kiefner, having been born in Bavaria on the 6th of April, 1834. John Kiefner was reared to the age of sixteen years in his old father- land and he received an excellent primary education in the public schools of Germany. In 1850 he immigrated to the United States in company with his grandfather and they located in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, where the young John learned the cabinet maker's trade. In 1865, just after the close of the Civil war, John Kiefner decided to establishı his home in the west and in that year he came to Perryville, where he opened up a furniture and undertaking business, continuing to be engaged in that line of. enterprise for a period of forty years. On the 25th of December, 1854, at Baltimore, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Cather- ine Lakel, who traces her origin back to ster- ling German stock. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefner became the parents of eleven children, five of whom are living at the present time, in 1911. On other pages of this work is dedicated a sketch to Samuel B. Kiefner, au older brother of the subject of this review. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefner are now living at Perryville, where they are retired from the active affairs of life and where they are enjoying to the full the fruits of their former years of earnest toil and endeavor. They are a fine old couple and are everywhere beloved for their admirable qual- ities and genial kindliness.
Charles E. Kiefner was educated in the public schools of Perryville and at the age of fourteen years he accompanied his parents to Kansas, where they resided for the ensuing four years. During this period Mr. Kiefner learned the carpenter's trade and upon his return to Perryville, at the age of twenty-one years, he opened offices as a contractor and builder. In 1894, when the railroad was ex- tended into Perryville he entered into a part- nership alliance with Mr. Tlapek in the lum- ber business, in which line of enterprise he
has continued to be interested during the long intervening years to the present time. As a captain of industry he is a man of shrewd executive ability-one who sees and grasps an opportunity in time to make the most of it. But all his attention has not been devoted to business enterprises. He is a stanch Re- publicau in his political proclivities and his first public office was that of alderman of Perryville. So well did he discharge his duties in this connection that later he was elected mayor of the city, serving in that capacity for a period of four years, from 1899 to 1903. In 1902 Mr. Kiefner was further honored by his fellow citizens in that he was then elected to represent Perry county in the Forty-third general assembly of Mis- souri. He was elected as his own successor in that office for the two succeeding sessions and he finally retired from the legislature in 1908. He was assigned to membership on important committees of the house and was a faithful and earnest worker in the deliber- ations of both the floor and committee room. At the present time, in 1911, he is president of the Republican county committee. In every possible connection Mr. Kiefner has contributed his fair quota to the progress and upbuilding of Perryville and Perry county at large and as a citizen no one commands a higher degree of popular confidence and esteem than does he.
On the 10th of July, 1895, Mr. Kiefner was united in marriage to Miss Jettie Luckey, who was born and reared at Brazeau, in Perry county and who is a daughter of Robert Luckey, a representative farmer at Brazeau, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefner are the fond parents of five children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth, -Charles H., Edwin L., Frank W., John and Kathryn. In their religious faith the Kief- ner family are devout members of the Presbyterian church, to whose charities and benevolences he is a most liberal contributor.
In a fraternal way Mr. Kiefner is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic order and with the Modern Woodmen of America, in addition to which he is also a valued and ap- preciative member of the local lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His is a noble character, one that subordinates personal ambition to public good and seeks rather the benefit of others than the aggrand- izement of self. Genial in his associations, he
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is considerate of others' feelings and sensibil- ities and is always ready to lend a helping hand to those in distress.
Kos LITTLE is known in Kennett as the "Spoke Man." By that they do not mean that he is always talking, on the contrary, he does not talk unless he has something to say and then he knows how to say it. One can- not fail to have the most profound admira- tion for those men who do their work and hold their peace-giving us faith in their abil- ities. They mind their own business. Such a one is Kos Little, the manufacturer of spokes.
He was born in Weakley county, Tennes- see, October 27, 1869. He is a son of T. I. and Sarah (Roberts) Little, both residents of Ten- nessee, being natives of Kentucky and Tennes- see, respectively. T. I. Little has always been and is still actively interested in spoke manu- facturing and banking. Both are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. There were eight children born to them, viz .: J. D. (deceased), T. M., J. W., Kos, Mrs. Maud (Jeter), Maggie (deceased), Dr. R. M. and Mrs. Mary Gray (Banks). Kos Little was educated in his native county and after his schooling was ended he spent two years in the United States Revenue Service; then moved to Paducah, Kentucky, and engaged with his brother, J. W. Little, in manufactur- ing spokes. His father and three older broth- ers are all engaged in the spoke manufactur- ing business. He learned all about the busi- ness, learning how to select the timber, how to ent it and move it to the factory. He used hickory almost exclusively for his spokes. He was in the business with his brother in Pad- ucah for eight years, coming to Kennett in 1901 to establish a plant here. He sells about thirty thousand dollars worth of spokes each year. manufacturing buggy, carriage and au- tomobile spokes, all made of hickory. He em- ploys thirty men and his expenses for operat- ing are about twenty-five thousand dollars a year. In addition to this business he is presi- dent of the Merchant Oil Company of Ken- nett, selling oil for tanks, etc. He is vice president of the Kennett Building and Loan Association, which is doing a great deal for Kennett. He owns some town property, on which he puts up the buildings. He is inter- ested in educational work and has served ou the city board.
Mr. Little married Mary Jones in Green- field. Tennessee. November 7, 1894. and one daughter, Louise, has been born to the union.
When Mr. Little takes a vacation, he gen- erally spends it at Dawson Spring, Kentucky.
GEORGE HENRY BISPLINGHOFF. Three years ago (in 1908) when George Henry Bispling- hoff, editor and publisher of The Bismarck Gazette, first secured control of that newspa- per, he had the distinction of being the youngest newspaper proprietor in the state of Missouri. Now, although but twenty-four years of age, he has manifested that he is of the stuff of which the ideal member of the Fourth Estate is made. The Gazette is inter- esting, reliable, sound and advanced in its views and is experiencing a steady growth. Mr. Bisplinghoff is loyal to Bismarck with the loyalty of a native son, for it was within its borders that his birth occurred on Febru- ary 10, 1887. His father, Henry Bispling- hoff, was born in Wayne county, Missouri, in 1858, and is of German descent. The grand- father, August Bisplinghoff, was, in truth, one of the early settlers of the state. He was born in Elberfeldt, Germany, in 1829, and came to the "land of promise"-America- in early life, locating in Missouri and engag- ing first in surveying and then devoting his energies to farming. He was never elected to the position of government surveyor, but was appointed to the same by Governor Brown. This interesting and honored gen- tleman, who is now eighty-two years of age, divides his residence between Bismarck and Fredericktown, and although advanced in years still retains his physical and mental faculties in much of their pristine vigor. The father of the subject came to Missouri just previous to the Civil war and settled in Pat- terson, in whose vicinity the grandfather conducted a farm. In 1885, some two years before the birth of the subject, he removed to Bismarck, where he still resides. He mar- ried Cornelia Jordan, daughter of William Jordan, of Potosi, and to their union eight children were born, six of whom are living. George Henry being the second in order of birth of the living children. The father since becoming identified with Bismarck has been engaged in the drug and general merchandise business. He is one of the stalwart Demo- crats of the county and is affiliated with the Court of Honor, while the family is con- nected with the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
The early life of George Henry Bispling- hoff was passed in Bismarck and to the schools of the city is he indebted for his ed-
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ucation in its preliminary stages. He subse- quently matriculated in Marvin College at Frederiektown, and was graduated from the Will Mayfield College at Marble Hall in 1905, taking the degree of Bachelor of Science. After graduating he returned to Bismarek and in April, 1908, he bought the office of The Bismarck Gazette. Although young in years, he has given evidence in the manage- ment of its affairs of a sound judgment and an editorial ability of decidedly promising order. The paper, independent in policy, has a local subscription list of five hundred, and its advent into the many homes of the little city and its environs is each week eagerly awaited.
Mr. Bisplinghoff still resides at the paren- tal home, having not yet become a recruit to the Benedicts. He is Democratie in his po- litieal faith, as his father and grandfather have been before him, and his lodge member- ship is with the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Court of Honor and the Rebekahs.
HARRY E. ALEXANDER, although a young man, has already shown the citizens of Cape Girardeau the mettle there is in him. He is a man who is calculated to be a power for good in the community. Most people are consumed with anxiety as to what others will think of their actions and will govern their conduct according to other people's ideas of what it should be. On the other hand, some men are utterly regardless of what other peo- ple may think and in order to show their dis- regard for public opinion they go ahead and do exactly the opposite to the approved, gen- erally accepted methods of procedure. Mr. Alexander is one of the small class of men who have hit the happy medium. He takes pains to find out in his own mind the course he intends to follow and he pursues that course, regardless of all other considerations. It is through such men that reforms come and without them there would be no progress.
He was born in Cape Girardeau county, February 3, 1880. His grandfather, Wil- liam E. Alexander, was a native of Mecklin- burg county, North Carolina, and was of Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestors having come to America from Scotland. In 1830. when William E. was a lad of eleven years of age, his father and mother brought him to southeastern Missouri; they located in Cape Girardeau county, where they were one of the pioneer families of the county. William was educated in the county and achieved suc-
cess. For many years he was publie admin- istrator in the state. His son, Oliver Alexan- der, was born in Cape Girardeau county, where he was edueated, engaged in farming and was married to Lillian L. Woods, also a native of Cape Girardeau county. She was the daughter of Rufus Woods who came from North Carolina about the same time that William E. Alexander came. The Woods family packed all their worldly belongings on wagons and made the journey from North Carolina to Missouri by that slow, laborious method. The family originally came from Scotland and like the Alexander family were of Seoteh-Irish descent.
Harry is the eldest of three children, hav- ing a brother and sister. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, where he learned to work, his father believing in the value of early training in habits of industry and responsibility. He did not, however, in- tend to be a farmer, but to be a lawyer like his grandfather. He was sent to the district school, where his natural abilities and dili- gence combined soon won him recognition. He attended high school and then the State normal school at Cape Girardeau, after which he went to the state university at Columbia, but did not complete the course there. In- stead he went to Austin, where the state uni- versity of Texas was located and graduated from the law department there in 1902. The following year he came to Cape Girardeau, where he began to practice law. He was alone for six years, but in 1909 he formed a partnership with Senator Lane, a lawyer who had already become prominent as a law- ver and a statesman. The firm has met with unprecedented success.
In 1905 Mr. Alexander married Miss Myr- tle Jackson, the daughter of Dr. Robert J. Jackson, of Bloomfield, Missouri. Two chil- dren have been born to this union, Genevieve Lucille and William E., named after his great grandfather.
In 1907 Mr. Alexander was elected state attorney, which position he held until 1911. He is a firm supporter of the Democratic party, believing that that platform embodies the principles of good government. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks, of the Eagles, of the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica. Being a life long member of Cape Gi- rardeau county, it is natural that Mr. Alex- ander should be vitally interested in the wel- fare of that county and of southeastern Mis-
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souri generally. He is by no means inclined to rest on his oars, but is ready to assume any responsibility and undertake any work that will promote the well being of the community and of the state. Personally he has the at- tributes which assure a man of success in anything he undertakes.
E. L. CLEVENGER. One of the public- spirited citizens of Piedmont is the agent and yard master of the Iron Mountain Railway, E. L. Clevenger. He is the eldest of three sons of Henry and Susan (Horwood) Clev- enger, of Fulton county, Pennsylvania. The other two brothers live in Washington, D. C., and in San Francisco, respectively. The parents died in Pennsylvania, the father at the age of sixty-four and the mother in Penn- sylvania, when thirty-nine years old.
E. L. Clevenger was born in Fulton county, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1870. When he was six years old his parents took him from the farm to town and sent him to school until he was fourteen years old. At that age he started work in a tan yard and four years later he came west. For a time Mr. Cleven- ger worked on farms in Iowa, but in Decem- ber of 1891 he came to Missouri as an opera- tor of the Iron Mountain Railway at Annap- olis and has continued in the railroad work in this state ever since. From Annapolis he was transferred to Blackwell, Missouri; in 1894, was sent to Williamsville as agent, and in 1902 he was promoted to his present posi- tion at Piedmont.
In this town Mr. Clevenger has worked untiringly for the improvement of the schools. He was first elected to the school board in 1908. He was reelected in 1911 and chosen president in recognition of his hard work for the cause of education. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clevenger are active members of the Christian church. Mrs. Clevenger was for- merly Miss Margaret Suddeth, of Prairie City, Iowa. She became Mrs. Clevenger Sep- tember 4, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Clevenger have four children, Ruby; Helen, Marjorie and Edrice, all at home.
Politics has no part in Mr. Clevenger's busi- ness, but he is a staunch Republican in mat- ters of political policy.
JOHN C. DALE. Distinctly a man of affairs, with a wide and successful experience in busi- ness and service in public office, Mr. Dale is best known in the county as a lumber mer- chant. His parents, James L. and Sarah J.
Dale, were natives of Tennessee, who came to Missouri in 1847 and located in Wayne county, near Piedmont. Here John C. Dale was born May 16, 1857, the first of a family of four children of whom three are still liv- ing. Both parents are deceased.
Until eighteen years of age Mr. Dale lived on his father's farm. At that time he went to Greenville and spent the next four years as deputy clerk, deputy sheriff and collector under James F. Hatton. At the conclusion of this period he kept books for Mr. Fred Evans, of Piedmont, and later was employed in the same capacity by Mr. H. N. Holliday, of Williamsville. Mr. Holliday was then planning the Holliday Railroad, later built to Greenville.
After spending four years in mercantile business in Piedmont, Mr. Dale went to Texas in 1885. He remained there ten years, the entire time working in the clerical de- partment of the Southern Pacific Railway. In 1895 he returned to Missouri where he has remained ever since. Saw mills, a stave factory, real estate, the insurance busi- ness and lastly the tie and lumber busi- ness have claimed his attention during these last sixteen years. Mr. Dale operated saw mills for three years and in 1900 he became superintendent for the Pioneer Cooperage Plant at Lutesville, which was established over forty years ago. He kept this position for six years, until he resigned it to engage in a successful real estate and insurance busi- ness. Mr. Dale spent the period from 1905 to 1909 at the last mentioned business, and then went into the lumber and railroad tie business. In a normal season his son Harry is his official tie and lumber inspector and buyer. Mr. Dale himself is the owner of three hundred and fifty acres of timber and farm land in Bollinger county, besides one and three-fourths acres and a fine residence in Lutesville.
The marriage of Mr. Dale to Miss Anna Dennis, of Wayne county, occurred August 1, 1879. Miss Dennis was the daughter of William Dennis, former sheriff of Wayne county, a personal friend of Sam Hildebrand and a Confederate soldier. Mr. and Mrs. Dale have seven children living: Maudie, wife of S. E. Chandler, was born in 1883. Hattie, a bookkeeper in Shreveport, Louis- iana, was born in 1885. The third daugh- ter, Martha V., is the wife of J. H. Byrd, of Kansas City, Missouri, and was born in 1888. Ollie, born 1890, is with the Consoli-
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JAMES R. ROMINES
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dated Store and Manufacturing Company. James Harry, mentioned earlier in this sketch, was born in 1893. Lillie and Charles were born in 1897 and 1900 respectively.
A good mixer and a man of deserved per- sonal popularity, Mr. Dale is active in sev- eral fraternal organizations. He is a mem- ber of the A. F. and A. M., of Marble Hill, and of the chapter and commandery at Cape Girardeau, in which he has taken fourteen degrees. He is also affiliated with the I. O. O. F., the K. O. T. M. and with the A. O. U. W. Mr. and Mrs. Dale are members of the Presbyterian church.
In politics Mr. Dale is a Republican, and, as earlier stated, he is not without experience in public office. It was while he was serving as deputy sheriff of Wayne county that the capture of the New Madrid desperadoes was planned and executed. The leaders in this dangerous undertaking were James Hatton and John Davis. Mr. Dale, who was absent on official business, was fifteen minutes late in arriving at Greenville, and Messrs. Hat- ton and Davis had already followed the des- peradoes out of town and caught up with them at the rendezvous, Jim Lee's residence, where they were eating a late breakfast. Hat- ton and Davis had held up both robbers in the dining room, but unfortunately they re- laxed vigilance and both were shot. Hatton recovered, but Davis died as the result of an operation performed in the hope of sav- ing him from the effects of the robbers' bul- lets. Altogether, Mr. Dale's career has been one of unusual interest.
WILLIAM W. HUBBARD. An industrious and enterprising farmer of Dunklin county, William W. Hubbard is prosperously en- gaged in his free and independent occupa- tion on one of the pleasantest homesteads in Senath, where he has lived for nearly a dec- ade. Coming on both sides of the house from Irish ancestry, he was born September 27, 1858, in Brownsville, Haywood county, Ten- nessee, where his parents settled on leaving Virginia, their native state. His father, who died while yet in the prime of life, in 1861, was a stage driver until after the building of railroads throughout Tennessee, when he embarked in the grocery business, which he carried on successfully until his death. His widow married a second time, but did not live very long thereafter, passing away in 1872.
After his mother's death William W. Hub-
bard, who had acquired his early education in the subscription schools of Tennessee, went to live with his grandmother and two aunts, who had been left almost destitute through the ravages of the Civil war, and his grandmother subsequently lived with him until her death, in 1896, at the venerable age of eighty-nine years. Selecting farming as his life occupation, Mr. IIubbard settled in White county Arkansas, about 1879, remain- ing there until 1903, heing employed in agri- cultural pursuits all of the time with the exception of four years when he was en- gaged in railroad work, being foreman of a section gang a part of the time. For four years after locating in Dunklin county, in 1903, Mr. Hubbard rented land, but has since resided on his present farm, and in its man- agement has been quite successful, having a large part of it cleared and under cultiva- tion, much of which is now rented to tenants. He intends to clear and improve the whole of his land and fence it, a work in which he has already made rapid progress, his farm bidding fair to become one of the most desir- able pieces of property in the neighborhood.
Politically Mr. Hubbard is affiliated with the Republican party, and fraternally heis a member of the Woodmen of the World, in which he has held various offices, and of the Woodmen's Circle, an auxiliary of the former organization.
Mr. Hubbard married, in January, 1889, in White county, Arkansas, Elizabeth Allen, who was born in Tennessee, January 24, 1867, a daughter of J. M. and Emma (Spark- man) Allen. Her father is now living in Senath, but her mother died in 1878, when Mrs. Hubbard was a girl of eleven years. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard have four children, namely : Russell B., born July 23, 1890; Wal- ter C., born January 27, 1892; John B., born November 11, 1896; and Pauline, born De- cember 25, 1908.
JAMES R. ROMINES. Missouri boasts, and with reason, of its wonderful agricultural re- sources, and that it has become such a success- ful farming country is attributable to the fact that men of acknowledged abilities have iden- tified themselves with the cultivation of the soil. James R. Romines, a farmer by nature, by inheritance and from choice, stands proin- inent in the state which he has helped to make famous.
Mr. Romines was born August 2, 1870, on a farm near Vincit, and is the son of Thomas
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and Lulu (Rogers) Romines. The father, familiarly called "Tom," was a native of Ten- nessee, where lie spent the first few years of his boyhood, then came to Missouri with his parents, where he later entered the agricul- tural field. He secured a traet of land on Horse Island, with the idea of cultivating it, but he was not very successful; thinking that he would accomplish better results in some other location, he moved to Vincit, but a short trial convinced him that if anything he would find the Vincit farm less desirable than the one he had formerly worked on, so back he went to Horse Island. He stayed this time for a period of seven years, his previous ex- perience enabling him to achieve a fair suc- cess, but he was by no means satisfied. At the expiration of seven years of uphill work, le disposed of the Horse Island place and again pulled up his stakes, moving this time to a farm two and a half miles northeast of Caruth. He was a hard worker, but some- how or other he was not able to do more than make both ends meet-land was new and there were few conveniences in that section of the country. He died in 1880, leaving fifty acres of land to his twin brother Will, and this tract represented the result of his years of work; Will died some years ago, and the property remains in the family, owned by his children. The early history of Mrs. Tom Romines was identical with that of her hus- band, in that she was born in Tennessee and had come to Missouri with her folks some years before her marriage, which took place at Caruth. To their union two children were born, Ellen, who married Wesley Winters, of Vincit, and James R., the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Thomas Romines maintains her home with her daughter at Vincit.
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