USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 98
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D. J. CONRAD. It was "the embattled farmers" who "fired the shot heard round the world" at Concord Bridge and ever since America has drawn her best soldiers from her
farms. Patriotism flourishes in the country. The life of D. J. Conrad is an instance of the response that the call to arms evokes from the man who owns and works his fields. His father, J. J. Conrad, was a veteran of the Civil war, whose military career in no way in- terfered with his being a successful agricul- turist, and the son, born in 1872, emulates his parent in zeal for the two pursuits.
Reared on his father's large farm, D. J. Conrad attended the schools of the county. At the outbreak of the Cuban war he enlisted, joined the Sixteenth U. S. Infantry and served eight months in Cuba. He was mus- tered out of the Cuban army January 17, 1899. Eight months later he again enlisted in the Philippine war. His regiment was the Thirty-eighth U. S. Volunteer Infantry, in whose ranks he served seventeen months in the Philippine Islands. He returned to Bol- linger county after his discharge and took up his work of farming again.
Upon his father's death in 1903 he became possessed of one hundred and fifty acres of land, mostly in timber, though he has added eighty acres of timber. The father owned at one time some four thousand acres, which is still owned in the family. Like most of his neighbors, Mr. Conrad raises stock besides doing general farming. He spent one year in the west, leaving Missouri in March, 1903. From 1905 to 1907 he was sheriff of Bollinger county, an office whose duties he discharged with characteristic thoroughness. At the time of the disturbance in Mexico, in 1911, Mr. Conrad was sent to Texas and served in the camp of instructions. He was called out by the Adjutant General of Missouri.
The marriage of Mr. Conrad and Miss Ida Kinder took place December 30, 1908. Ida Kinder was the daughter of A. A. and Mary Kinder, both natives of Missouri. Mary Burns Conrad, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. D. J. Conrad, was horn November 9, 1909.
Mr. Conrad belongs to the Masonic order, being a member of the lodge at Marble Hill, Missouri. He is also actively connected with the Army and Navy Union at St. Louis, Mis- souri. Mr. Conrad's church preference is the Presbyterian, where he regularly attends. Politically he is known as a thorough-going Republican.
REV. ELISHA CALVIN BUTLER. One of the most necessary characteristics for a man to be possessed of in order to make a success of his own life and of those things which he under-
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takes is to be intensely in earnest. This is one of the most noticeable traits about the Rev. E. C. Butler, pastor of the Kennett Mis- sionary Baptist Church. If one follows his career one cannot fail to see that he has ac- complished almost miraculous results by rea- son of his own personality. Others have the same message to tell, but they are not able to obtain the listeners, simply because they have not the power to speak with the conviction that strikes home. Mr. Butler accomplishes those things which he sees possible day by day, thus opening up avenues to new efforts and new results. A brief survey of his history may prove of interest.
He was born in Carroll county, in western Tennessee, January 8, 1869, and was brought up on the Tennessee farm. After the comple- tion of his preliminary education he attended Ewing College, Ewing, Illinois: not having at that time felt himself drawn towards the min- istry, he began to teach at the age of twenty- two, teaching in the country schools in Ten- nessee for three years. He had also taken a two years' course at the Holiday Independent Normal School in Benton county, Tennessee. After teaching for a short time in Tennessee he decided that for him the way to do the most good in the world was to become a minis- ter. He was especially interested in the mis- sion side of the ministry and he attended the Missionary Baptist College at Ewing, where he took a theological course. He had, how- ever, preached before this and had also been ordained; he felt, however, that the college work would make him more fully equipped for his career. As soon as he left college he entered upon his pastoral work, locating first at Steeleville, Illinois, in Randolph county, and Tamaroa, Illinois, taking charge of the pastoral duties at both these last named places at the same time. His next charge was at Cobden, Illinois, coming in 1906 to Dexter, Missouri, where he remained three years as local pastor. During this time the church was remodeled and the attendance was doubled. He organized the Baptist Young Peoples Union, which still continues to be a. live enthusiastie society. He owns a Gospel tent, in which he holds meetings. During the series held in Dexter there were twenty-four conversions. He held a series of four meet- ings in the county, outside Dexter. one result- ing in thirty-eight eonversions one in forty- seven and still another in thirty-one. The result of these meetings, in addition, or per-
haps because of the impression produced in the hearts of the people, resulted in the buikl- ing of a thousand dollar church at Idalia, Missouri. It was erected within sixty days after the close of the meetings and was fully paid for at the time of its dedication. This was certainly striking while the iron was hot. It is the experience of so many of the evangel- istie preachers of the country that the people who are converted during special meetings do not continue in the road in which they started. The Rev. Elisha Butler has probably found a cure for that; he, as in the case cited above, immediately gets the new converts started to do something, not giving them a chance to backslide; then when onee in the work, the chances are very much in favor of the large majority remaining steadfast, as there is con- stantly something to do to keep their interest alive. He held meetings at the Tatum school house, near Dexter, Missouri, where there were forty-seven conversions; a church re- sulted, which is ealled Butler's Chapel. He witnessed two hundred eonversions in five meetings in Stoddard county, Missouri. All of this work was accomplished within three years, and in October, 1909, he came to Ken- nett, as the result of a most urgent invitation from the Baptist church. Since he came to Kennett he has spent most of his time in con- nection with the local church. Since his ar- rival the Kennett church has added twenty by baptism and thirty-two by letter, as the result of constant, day by day effort on the part of Mr. Butler. The church is now being enlarged, to accommodate the growing enter- prises. Six Sunday-school rooms are being added, for the modern teaching that has been inaugurated. The present membership of the church is about two hundred and eighty-nine. The young people in particular are becoming interested and are doing effective work. Although Mr. Butler is absolutely devoted to the local church and finds full seope for his energies, he still continues the tent work, for which he is so admirably suited.
On April 20, 1897, Mr. Butler was married to Miss Josie Parham, a native of Montgomery county, Illinois. She is in perfeet sympathy with her husband in all of his efforts and is herself active in the church. Besides being president of the Woman's Missionary Union, she is active in the general work of the church. Mr. and Mrs. Butler have one daughter. Ver- die Charleve, who is now twelve years old and attending the Kennett public school. Their
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other child, Loran Parham, died when he was two years old, while Rev. Butler was pastor at Dexter, Missouri.
Mr. Butler is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It is probable that his association with this order has been of great assistance to him in his church work, as he can the more readily adjust himself to dif- ferent classes of men. He has a fine library, composed chiefly of books pertaining to his work, but not exclusively, as Mr. Butler be- lieves in having about him all the broadening influences that are possible. If a minister would be effective, he must be able to be "all things to all men," not in the way of toady- ing to them in the least, but he must have the faculty of entering into their feelings and be able to view things from their standpoints. Mr. Butler naturally has this faculty and he has cultivated it so that it has developed to an unusual extent. He is doing a great work and as he is still a young man, is probably only at the beginning of his career. From Mr. Butler's standpoint the most successful life is the one that has accomplished the most good and from that attitude his friends would say that he is most successful. He is not a rich man, which is the gauge of a busi- ness man's success-the ability to make money-but he has riches of a more lasting na- ture, treasures which can never be stolen nor lost. The people in Kennett love both Mr. Butler and his wife and appreciate every ef- fort they are making. His work as pastor at Kennett, Missouri, closed in October, 1911.
EMIL CHARLES SCHRAMM. A young man of splendid business intelligence and enter- prise is Emil Charles Schramm, manager of the Schramm Wholesale Grocery Company, of Flat River, an important and flourishing concern with capital stock estimated at forty thousand dollars. He is also connected with one of Saint Francois largest monetary in- stitutions, the Miners & Merchants Bank, be- ing a stockholder and director in the same. Mr. Schramm is a native of Sainte Genevieve county, Missouri, his birth having occurred within the boundaries of that neighboring county May 11, 1881. His father, Henry Schramm, was born in Germany, March 22, 1843. He secured his education in the rightly famed schools of that country and like so many German youths of his generation, served an apprenticeship as a baker. At the age of
nineteen years he came to America and lo- cated in Sainte Genevieve county, Missouri, but did not pursue the trade he had learned, instead securing land and devoting his ener- gies to the great basic industry. He early es- tablished a household by marriage, the young woman to become his bride being Miss Philli- pine Herter, of Sainte Genevieve county, daughter of Henry Herter. To their union were born twelve children, of whom ten sur- vive at the present time, Emil C., the imme- diate subject of this review, being the ninth in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Schramm, the elder, reside in St. Francois county at the present time, making their home upon the farm which is dear to them by many happy associations and enjoying the respect of the community in which they have so long been valuable factors. The elder Mr. Schramm is Republican in politics and Lutheran in relig- ious conviction.
Emil C. Schramm enjoyed the experience, usually considered an advantage rather than otherwise, of spending his early years upon the farm and assisting in the duties there to be encountered which bring the boy and girl, in the words of the Hoosier poet, "near to Na- ture's heart." He received his education in the public schools of East St. Louis and later entered the business department of Carleton College, whose course he finished at the age of twenty-two. Soon afterward he entered the Schramm Wholesale Grocery House, man- aged by A. O. Schramm, a brother, first en- gaging in the duties of the position of stock- man and subsequently as salesman. In 1908 the subject became manager of the Schramm Grocery Company at Flat River and in the subsequent time has met with no small amount of success in this capacity. As men- tioned in a preceding paragraph, he is also connected with the Miners & Merchants Bank.
Mr. Schramm became a recruit to the Ben- edicts when, on the 26th day of September, 1906. he was united in marriage at Farming- ton to Miss Mamie Braun, of Farmington, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Mell) Braun. Mr. and Mrs. Schramm are the par- ents of one son, Leonard. The subject gives hand and heart to the policies and principles for which the "Grand Old Party" stands and is Lutheran in religious faith. He and his wife maintain a pleasant home and hold high place in popular confidence and esteem.
The Schramm Wholesale Grocery Com-
.
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pany was established in the year 1903, and is capitalized for forty thousand dollars. This company makes the entire lead belt its terri- tory and does a business of the highest class, being indeed one of those excellent concerns which contribute in very material fashion to the prosperity and prestige of the section.
WILLIAM N. HOWARD, M. D. In all the county of Cape Girardeau there is no man who is more respected and loved by old and young, by rich and poor alike, than is Dr. William N. Howard. For years his life has been spent in seeking to benefit others. His one ambition has been and still is to serve his fellow men. His maxim is to look up, not down, to look forward not back, but lend a hand. His knowledge of human nature has taught him to look upon the errors of others in sorrow not in anger. He is a man whom to see is to admire.
He was born in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, November 26, 1862. He is the son of James M. Howard, a native of North Caro- lina and one of the early settlers in Missouri, whither he came with his parents when he was a small boy. The family located on a farm near Appleton, on which one of the sons still lives. James M. Howard married Sarah Day who was also born in North Carolina and was the daughter of Nighten Day of that county. When Sarah was very small her par- ents moved to Cape Girardeau county, where they farmed, settling near Oak Ridge. Mr. and Mrs. Day have four sons and two daugh- ters, who all live in the neighborhood of their old home. Mrs. James M. Howard died in 1909, having borne five sons and two daugh- ters. The little girls both died in infancy. Four of the sons are living now, of whom Dr. William is the third. The grandfather of William N. Howard and father of James M. Howard was named John. He was of Scotch English descent and was born in North Caro- lina. He came to southeastern Missouri and located on a farm near Appleton. Two of his sons were also farmers.
William N. Howard's boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, where he learned something of the farm life and attended the district school. After he had been educated as highly as his father thought was necessary, he started out to make a career for himself. He had not at that time decided to become a physician, but first did some surveying for the railroad, in 1884. Three years later he began to study medicine, entering the St.
Louis Medical College, from which he grad- nated in 1890. Immediately following his graduation, he came to Cape Girardeau, where he has been in practice ever since. He is a member of the Cape Girardeau Medical Society , the Southeastern Missouri Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
In 1896 his marriage to Adda Wilson, daughter of Gilbert Wilson of Cape Gir- ardeau county, was solemnized. To this union was born one daughter, named Sarah after the Doctor's mother.
Dr. Iloward is a Democrat and although he is greatly interested in public affairs, he has evinced no desire for honors for himself. IIe is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Masonic Order, holding membership in the Blue Lodge Ancient Order Free and Ac cepted Masons. He is a life long resident of Cape Girardeau county and has been in prac tice in this city for over twenty years, having a general practice and also doing surgical work for the railroad. There is only one phy- sician in Cape Girardeau who has been in practice a little longer than Dr. Howard, but there is no one who is more loved. He is very much interested in educational work and is a member of the board of education, on which he does very admirable work. He realizes that it is on the schools that the future of his native county depends. He has the interests of the children greatly at heart.
THOMAS J. SWEAZEA. It is a pleasure to the biographer to include in these sketches of important citizens of southeastern Missouri one who is not only prominent for his pres- tige as the grandson of a pioneer and as a respected member of the legal profession, but one who is also as firmly intrenched in the af- fection and high regard of the many who know him personally as Mr. Thomas J. Swea- zea. of Piedmont.
The paternal grandfather of Thomas Swea- zea, William Sweazea, was born in the state of Tennessee, and migrated to this state in 1808, locating near the Black river, where he entered and bought a large and fertile tract of land, which he tilled and made his home until 1850, the year of his death. George Mann, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Swea- zea, a native of South Carolina, also early felt the impulse to try life on what was then the frontier, and came from his native state to the Black river district. William Sweazea, the father of the subject of this brief record,
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was born and reared in Wayne county, where until 1865 he undertook farming on a small tract of land on the Black river, but in that year he removed to Reynolds county. There he purchased another tract of land and spent the remainder of his life in its improvement, so that in 1901, when he died at the vener- able old age of seventy-three years, he hav- ing been born in 1832, it was an important agricultural and stock raising estate. His wife, before her marriage, was Amanda Mann, a native of Reynolds county. Her birth occurred in 1832, and she passed to her eternal reward in 1880. Her husband was ever a loyal member of the Democratic party, and both were devont members of the Bap- tist church. Besides Thomas J., their chil- dren were as follows: William A., now of Wayne county; Sophronia, wife of Robert Benson and makes her home in Alabama; and Margaret, wife of M. L. Sanders, of Leeper, this state.
Thomas J. Sweazea was born on his fa- ther's farm on October 14, 1870. He remained on the home farm until he was within one year of his majority, and took advantage of the educational opportunities afforded by the district schools of those early days. When he was twenty he entered Carleton College, at Farmington, Missouri, where he remained until 1893. He then made practical use of his education and taught a school with such success that in 1895 he was elected county commissioner for a term of two years. His first experience as candidate for the office of county clerk of Reynolds county not result- ing in the possession of the honor, he ran again in 1903 and this time easily won the office. In 1907 his political service to his connty was continued as a member of the Forty-fourth General Assembly, as repre- sentative from the Reynolds county district, and he is still remembered for his able par- ticipation in the making of wise legislation for his native state.
Following his term of office, he removed to Salem, where he prepared himself for his profession by reading law, with such success that in 1909 he was admitted to the bar. He again changed his residence, coming to Pied- mont, where he opened his office and made the beginnings of his present fine patronage. He has continued his public service as a mem- ber and secretary of the school board of Pied- mont, where he has rendered needed service as an advocate of better and more efficient schools.
Besides his profitable law clientage, Mr. Sweazea owns a farm not far from Piedmont. On June 6, 1895, he insured for himself a gracious companionship and happy home by his marriage with Miss Ella Malloy, who was born May 30, 1871, near Piedmont, a daugh- ter of John and Mary (Warren) Malloy, of Wayne county. Four children have since come to their pleasant home, namely : Doyle J., Pearl, Ava and Opal T.
Mr. Sweazea adheres firmly to the princi- ples and policies of the party of Jefferson and Jackson. Both he and his wife support the tenets of the Baptist church.
THOMAS MARTIN JACKSON, member of the bar of Southeast Missouri and a successful attorney of Desloge, has had a varied and useful career both in the law and in the min- istry. Born in Monroe county, Kentucky, January 14, 1860, and spending his early years on a farm, he received an education in the country schools, in the Glasgow Normal School and Business College at Glasgow, Kentucky, and the Southern Normal School and Business College at Bowling Green, Ken- tucky, and after his graduation from the lat- ter entered educational work. For thirteen years he was a successful teacher in Ken- tucky, Missouri and Arkansas. During six years of this period he carried on his studies for the bar in a law office, and was admitted to practice April 28, 1892, at Russellville, Arkansas, and later enrolled in the supreme court of Missouri.
For six years he was engaged in active practice. He then devoted his service to the ministry of the Methodist church, South, and for sixteen years was a traveling min- ister for that denomination. Finally, on ac- count of his wife's health, he returned to the practice of law in 1908, and has since en- joyed a liberal business at Desloge. During his ministry he occupied some of the leading pulpits of the state and was also a presiding elder in that church. In politics he is a Republican.
Mr. Jackson's father was George W. Jack- son, who was born in Washington county, Tennessee, March 29, 1836. His early life was spent on a farm in his native state until the war, when he joined the Union army, Company B, Fifth Kentucky Cavalry, and was a member of Sherman's army during its march to the sea. After the war he settled on a farm in Kentucky. Before entering the
TM. Jackson.
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service he married Miss Rebecca A. Ford, a daughter of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Ford, of that state. Eleven children were born of their marriage, Thomas M. being the second in order of birth. George W. Jack- son moved to Missouri in 1880, locating near Farmington, where his active years were spent in farming, and he lived retired in that town until his death, in 1910. His wife pre- ceded him to the other world about twenty years. In politics he was a strong Repub- lican, was affiliated with the G. A. R. post, and was a member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Thomas M. Jackson married, Febru- ary 27, 1890, Miss Jennie Fowler, a daughter of George P. and Lavina Fowler, farmers of St. Genevieve county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have four children: Clemmie, Harry F., Grace M. and Catherine.,
W. A. DAVAULT. The great Apostle Paul, when describing the ideal preacher of the gospel, says, he must be "apt to teach," a characterization which cannot fail to impress all who know Rev. W. A. Davault, vice-presi- dent of Will Mayfield College, as being an especially fitting description of the Profes- sor. It is not given to many men to wield so wide an influence; to be in such elose touch with the younger generation, the students of the college, and at the same time to be pastor of three Baptist churches, and perhaps few men could fulfill such responsibilities. Cer- tainly Professor Davault is rightly regarded as a power for righteousness, culture and all that makes for the higher life.
By descent Professor Davault belongs to the Huguenots who settled in North Caro- lina when persecution drove them from France and who have given America so many theologians, scholars and statesmen. The founder of the American branch of the fam- ily was a Baptist missionary. In 1804 James Davault, grandfather of W. A., eame to Bollinger county, where he was one of the earliest settlers. Christian J. Davault, son of the pioneer and father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer and also a soldier in the Civil war, in the Union army. He was once captured and later paroled. He was in active service at the close of the war. hay- ing enlisted three times, always in a Missouri regiment. He died in 1899, in the county where he was born and where he spent the most of his life. His wife was born in Perry county, the daughter of William Adison Walker. Her family, too, were pioneers of
this county, coming from Virginia early in the nineteenth century. The Walkers are of English origin.
W. A. Davault's native town is Perryville, Missouri, where he was born January 25, 1865. Ilis boyhood days were spent on the farm assisting his father and attending the district school. He began teaching at the age of nineteen, an occupation for which he had prepared himself by study in both public and private schools and one for which he kept himself at the best by constant study. In 1894 he graduated from the academie course of Will Mayfield College; in 1901 Mr. Da- vault took his B. S. degree from the same in- stitution, and received his A. M. degree in 1911.
Mr. Davault has not confined his interest in education to merely acquiring knowledge or even to imparting instruction. IIe has given many years of faithful and intelli- gent service to the administrative branch of the department of public education. IIis service as school-commissioner of Bollinger county began in 1895. Ile served in this ca- pacity until 1899. During the same period he was chosen as conductor of the district teachers' institute, doing most efficient work the whole four years in both offices. In 1903 the Professor was again elected school com- missioner and served six years, making five terms in all which he has given to this work.
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