USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 102
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On the 20th of March, 1896, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Ramsey to Miss Vera C. Morris, who was born and reared in Saline county, Illinois, the year of her nativity hav- ing been 1876. This union was prolific of nine children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,-Fern, Wyman, Audry, Willis, Samuel L., Jr., Ivan Wise, Loyce, Vera May and James, the latter two of whom are twins. The mother of the above children was called to the life eternal on the 22nd of September, 1910, and the oldest
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daughter, Fern, is now keeping house. The Ramsey family are popular and prominent in connection with the best social activities of their home community. Mr. Ramsey is a man of fine intellect and sterling integrity. Through his own well directed endeavors he has carved out a fine success for himself and as a citizen and business man he commands the highest regard of his fellow men.
JAMES S. MILLER. Endowed with much na- tive talent and well versed in legal lore, James S. Miller holds an assured position among the able and successful attorneys of Bloomfield, where he is enjoying a substantial law prac- tice. He was born March 25, 1869, in West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, where he re- ceived his elementary education. He was graduated from the Indiana City Normal School, in his native state, and subsequently taught school in that vicinity three terms.
In 1889 Mr. Miller came to Stoddard county, Missouri, to join his brother, George W. Mil- ler, who had located on a farm lying six miles west of Bloomfield in 1879, and is still occupy- ing it, being one of the prosperous agricultur- ists of his community. After teaching school in or near Bloomfield for three terms Mr. Miller read law with George Houck, and in 1892 was admitted to the bar. He began the practice of his profession in Bloomfield, and continued his legal work here until 1900, when he assumed the editorship of the Bloom- field Cosmos, a Republican paper established by B. H. Adams, editing during the MeKin- ley campaign. On account of the ill health of his wife, Mr. Miller sold his paper in 1902, and spent sometime in the Ozark Mountains and in the south. In 1903 he returned to Bloom- field, where he has since been actively and successfully employed in the practice of his profession, having a large and lucrative cli- entele.
Mr. Miller is a steadfast Republican, and prominent in party ranks. He has been a delegate to all state conventions since 1892, and likewise to congressional conventions. He is also active in local campaigns, stumping the county and writing effectively for the Saint Louis Globe-Democrat. He has served with distinction on the Republican state committee, and has been a member and secretary of the county Republican committee, in the latter capacity exerting much influence, a Republi- can, notwithstanding the county is Democratic by a majority of seven hundred or more vot- ers, occasionally being elected in office.
In September, 1894, Mr. Miller was united in marriage with Kate C. Lynch, of Cape Gi- rardeau, who presides over his household with a most gracious hospitality. Fraternally Mr. Miller is a member of the Knights of the Mac- cabees, and is an active worker in the Knights of Pythias, being familiar with its lodge work. He is fond of life in the open, especially en- joying hunting.
LEWIS F. HUNTER. Mr. Hunter's life was spent in the county where he was born and in its brief span of forty-five years it was his happy lot to attain success in his chosen work and the honor and friendship of neighbors and fellow citizens. He was born August 2, 1851, four years before his brother Albert E. He attended Caledonia College and took a commercial course at the Christian Brothers' College in St. Louis. After this he came home and engaged in farming.
Mrs. Lewis Hunter is a sister of Mrs. Albert Hunter, and is a daughter of the Quaker phy- sician, John Calvin Pack, and Amanda (Le- Sieur) Pack, his wife, well known citizens of New Madrid county in the first half of the nineteenth century. One son, John Hunter, born in 1894, two years before his father's death, is still with his mother, Mrs. Eva Pack llunter. Three other children are married; Mary is Mrs. Joseph Schmuke, of Jackson, Missouri. The sons, Samuel and Shapley, are both residents of New Madrid county.
Lewis Hunter was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, in which order, as well as in other relations, with his fellow cit- izens, he was a person of influence and popu- larity. The cutting off of his life on May 9, 1896, in its very prime, deprived the county of a valuable and esteemed resident.
E. MORRISON. Our Middle-West has been largely settled by men whose fathers were pi- oneers of the eastern section of our country and by the sturdy people of northern Europe who brought their patient thrift to add to the American "push." Though rapidly passing from the status of a new country, the oppor- tunities of this region continue to attract en- terprising men from the older sections, and one such in Poplar Bluff is E. Morrison.
Born in York county, Pennsylvania, in 1864, Mr. Morrison early moved with his parents to Nebraska, attending school in Ashland of that state and graduating from the high school. It was in this state that he met and married Miss Alice Snyder, of Hays county. The mar-
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riage took place in 1890, the year before Mr. Morrison came to Poplar Bluff. Mrs. Mor- rison's parents, Jacques and Mary Snyder, also reside here at present. When Mr. Mor- rison graduated from high school he became traveling agent for the Iron Mountain Rail- way, and was six years with them in that ca- pacity. He had previously served them as brakeman. He left the railroad work in 1891 when he came here and went into the manu- facture of hoops. He entered upon this en- terprise alone and has now a mill whose daily output is forty thousand hoops. These are shipped all over the country from Pennsyl- vania to California. Mr. Morrison has an- other mill which employs twenty-five men. He has at various times been the owner of other plants of this kind, but at present is conduct- ing only these two. In city property he has a number of houses which he rents besides his own home.
The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Morrison are at present enjoying the advantages of collegiate training, Eddie C., at Oberlin, Ohio, that school which has done so much to preserve high ideals of scholarship and of the high calling of the college-trained men and women, and Ethel M., at Columbia, whose achievements need no introduction to the citi- zens of the commonwealth whose educational system it completes.
Mr. Morrison is a man noted for his civic pride and devotion. From 1899 until 1910 he was councilman from the second ward, and in that period was unremitting in his efforts to render the best possible service to the city. He was eight years chairman of the board of street commissioners and served two years on the school hoard. In all these positions his work was performed with the single purpose of advancing the interests of the city.
The fraternal organizations with which Mr. Morrison is affiliated are the Elks and the Masons. He has held office in both of these lodges. The Presbyterian church counts the Morrison family in the number of its faithful and interested members. Mr. Morrison's place among the citizens of influence in Poplar Bluff is due no less to his public-spirited attitude and sterling personal worth than to his con- spicuous success in the commerce field.
CLAUDE L. CLARY. The manager of the Sikeston Ice, Light and Power Company, was born in Carthage, Missouri, thirty-one years ago, 1911, on the last day of April. The pro- fession which he follows so successfully was
also that of his father, Albert W. Clary, an electrical and mechanical engineer, who lost his life in the power plant of the Southwestern Missouri Electrical Company at Webb City. Mr. Albert Clary was chief engineer at the time of his death and was residing in the neighboring city, Carthage. His widow Mrs. Emma Nall Clary, still resides in that city and is now in her fifty-first year. She was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, in 1861. Her hus- band was one year her senior and his birth- place was Mississippi. His career was cut off in its very midst, as he was only forty at the time of his tragic death.
Claude Clary graduated from the Carthage high school in 1897, two years before his father was killed. He went to work immedi- ately in the electrical department of the South- western Missouri Electric Railway Company, in the Webb City office, supplementing his practical experience by taking two courses in the American Correspondence School at Chi- cago. From there Mr. Clary went to Crystal City, to accept a position with the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company, as chief engineer. He had spent four years with the Southwestern Missouri Electric Railway Company and was assistant engineer when he left the concern.
After one year in Crystal City Mr. Clary's proficiency in electrical chemistry brought him into the employ of the Magnetic Separat- ing Company of Joplin, Missouri. He did re- search work for this firm and traveled through Colorado and Utah, getting samples for their work. The Western Electric Company of St. Louis secured his services in 1903, and for three years he traveled for them as a sales- man and did engineering work. In 1906 he became manager of the Sikeston Ice, Light and Power Company, and since that time has re- sided here.
No plant in Missouri pays so high a revenue per capita as the Sikeston establishment. It lias an electrical capacity of 400 kilowatts and and turns out eleven tons of ice per day. The equipment is of the latest and most approved pattern and the entire plant was designed by Mr. Clary and erected under his supervision. His unusual skill and scientific knowledge have been brought to bear on the construction and operation of the plant with the most grati- fying results.
One year before moving to Sikeston Mr. Clary laid the foundation of a domestic estab- lishment and a life-long companionship by his marriage to Miss Grace Philipps, of Joplin, Missouri. She is the daughter of Alice and
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Hiram Philipps, of that city. This union has resulted in one child, William P., born April 18, 1908.
Although Mr. Clary is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen's lodge, his chief interest is in his professional fraternity, that of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He is prom- inent in the Missouri Public Utility Associa- tion, of which he was two years secretary and treasurer and is now vice-president.
It is only because we are so accustomed to the wonders of science that we fail to recog- nize the greatness of the service rendered to us by those who devote themselves to increase- ing the powers of the two great wizards of modern times, steam and electricity. The achievements of the modern chemist make the dreams of the old alchemist poor affairs in- deed. The utmost they hoped was to turn something valueless into gold. But to enable people to obtain the comforts which make life easier was something that did not enter their minds. Money could buy them gold-embroid- ered, jewel-bedecked clothing and slaves to fan them-and incidentally to spoil their tem- pers by laziness and disturb their slumbers by fears of poison or violence. Magnificence they might know, but never comfort. When we obtain light by the touch of a switch, talk to our friends a hundred miles away, and enjoy all the comforts and benefits for which we are dependent upon the ice manufactory, let us contrast our happy lot with the uncomfortable kings and caliphs of the past and pay honor to those who have brought us to this pleasant mode of life, the scientists and mechanicians.
GIDEON ANDERSON LUMBER & MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY is perhaps the largest manu- facturing concern in this section of Missouri, and has been a factor of incalculable import- ance in the development of the region in which it is situated. The town of Gideon owes its existence to the company and the company in turn is the result of the enterprise of W. P. and M. S. Anderson, combined with the able efforts of M. V. Munna, C. F. Muntemeyer and M. C. Johnson, all residents of Gideon with the single exception of William P. Anderson, who makes his home in St. Louis, Missouri. At present the latter named is president of the company and M. S. Anderson is vice-presi- dent and is in charge of the various plants which the growing scope of the company's activities have caused to be established.
This lumber company originated in Deca-
tur, Indiana, and came to Gideon in 1900. At this time there was only a little clearing in the all but impassable swamp and the country around about was virgin forest. The few farms on the ridges were of the poorest sort and the country was altogether undeveloped. The saw mill was a sort of entering wedge for the development. There was no railroad, but this did not deter the promoters from be- ginning work. Their mill had a capacity of 10,000 feet per day and until they could se- cure other transportation they hauled the out- put to Gibson, the nearest point on the rail- way. Meanwhile the company was busily ne- gotiating with Houch for an extension of the railroad and by 1902 the tap line was running from Gibson to the lumber camp and in 1903 it was extended to Morehouse and thus a more direct outlet for the product was se- cured. Later the company built a road of their own, the Gideon & North Island Rail- way, and so has all the advantages of inter- railway connections, north and south. The branch of the Frisco system built in 1902 has been paid for several times by the freight charges levied upon the company who secured its construction.
The increasing demand for lumber neces- sitated the enlargement of the mill and about the same time a handle plant was added. This factory turns out all kinds of ash and hickory handles and has a capacity of six hun- dred dozens in smaller sizes daily. Fifty men are employed in this plant. A planing mill which employs about the same number of men as the handle plant is another depart- ment of the company's enterprise. The saw mill, whose capacity was 15,000 feet, proved too small for the demands of their trade and a still larger one was constructed. A stave mill with a capacity of 45,000 staves per day was the next addition and their wooden trams were replaced by a standard gange railroad, upon which four locomotives and a hundred logging cars are kept busy handling the out- put of the mills. The company has its own shops in which they have built three steam log- loaders, besides other equipment, and pos- sesses everything required to run a model lum- bering plant. Another feature of their prog- ress is represented by the construction of a modern band mill now in course of erection. When completed this mill will have a capac- ity of from eighty to one hundred million feet of hard wood lumber daily. The entire oper- ations of the company calls for a force of three hundred men, including those connected
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with the mercantile business of the firm,-a flourishing branch which transacts an annual volume of business aggregating $100,000.
The town of Gideon was platted in May, 1903. Previous to this the company had built a school house and employed a teacher. Shortly afterward the county board estab- lished a distriet and continued the work which the company had begun. The interest the directors take in the welfare of their em- ployes, of which the building of the school house was but one manifestation, has had much to do with the success of the project. The town has a rapidly growing population and the development of the agricultural re- sources of the surrounding country will as- sure its continued advancement. The land cleared of the timber is rapidly being brought under cultivation and is proving a source of great wealth to the community. The Gideon Anderson Company also owns mills at Mal- den, Missouri, and stave mills at Jacksonport, Arkansas.
The holdings of the company have in- creased from 4,000 acres to about 18,000 acres. The timber is oak, hickory, maple and gum, and the supply will probably last for ten years. As the land is cleared it is being reclaimed from its swampy condition by drainage ditches and is found to be highly productive, and so promises a continued pros- perity to the country when the timber supply is exhausted. The credit due to the men who have devoted themselves to conducting this enterprise cannot be overestimated. They did not accomplish the great things that may be placed to their credit by sitting in a ma- hogany furnished office and issuing orders, but by actual work in the wild country. The head of this business, which is rated in the commercial agencies as worth somewhere he- tween $300,000 and $500,000, with a high credit standing, has often waded the swamp carrying provisions for the workers in the early days of the development of the com- pany, and throughout the later years has never avoided any of the hardships which in- variably fall to the lot of those who enter a new and untried country.
LEVI BURRIS. Burris is a name that has been a familiar one in Puxico and vicinity for more than two decades. A drug store, a mil- linery establishment, a hotel, a business block and a public hall-all bear the name, and all are a credit to the town.
Levi Burris was born in Daviess county, In- diana, and in his native state was reared and educated. He prepared himself for the med- ical profession, and for twelve years was en- gaged in the practice of medicine in Indiana. Then he moved to Missouri. That was in 1888. Here he and his good wife at once be- came identified with the best interests of the pioneer settlement, and it is largely due to their efforts that the town is what it is today. While Doctor Burris has been engaged in the practice of his profession and has conducted a drug store, Mrs. Burris has carried on a mil- linery business and run first a boarding house and later the Burris Hotel. As the years passed by they prospered and invested their earnings in substantial buildings. The Burris Hotel, which they erected in 1897, was the first good building in the town and was put up at a cost of $6,000. It has since been im- proved and added to. In 1909 they erected a business block, fifty by seventy feet in dimen- sions ; its first floor contains three store rooms, its second floor is used for office purposes, and on the third floor is a public hall, fifty by fifty feet, used for lodge meetings. This building was erected at a cost of $10,000, and would do credit to a city. In this building is the Doctor's drug store and office. He also has farming interests in this vicinity, having invested extensively in farm lands.
Mrs. Burris has her millinery store in the hotel building. As an early pioneer here she began both the boarding-house and millinery business in a small way. She trimmed hats not only for the immediate local trade, but also for the merchants in this and adjoining counties. Indeed, she sold her trimmed hats to stores in nearly all the towns in Southeast- ern Missouri, traveling over the territory her- self and selling her own goods. She recounts many interesting experiences illustrating the crudeness of society during her early life here, and takes a pride in being one of those whose efforts have done much to make condi- tions in this region conform more nearly to those of society elsewhere. And hesides con- ducting her millinery business, she gives her personal attention to the supervision of the hotel, which compares favorably with the very best in similar towns in Missouri.
Dr. and Mrs. Burris have two children: Lou, wife of J. Shoemaker, and Cora M. The Doctor is identified as a member with both the County and State Medical Societies, and both professionally and as a business man stands high in the esteem of the people among
Les Dohogne.
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whom he lives. He takes little interest in poli- tics.
LEO DOHOGNE. The proportion of our pop- ulation who are of Belgian ancestry is not a very large one, but it may be said that its members make up in quality what they lack in numbers, bringing as they all do such lofty standards of industry, loyalty and piety. A good representative of that stock is Mr. Leo Dohogne.
Constantine Dohogne, his father, came to America from Belgium when he was twelve years of age. His native city was Liege. The family settled near New Hamburg, Missouri, and Constantine at once was put to work for the support of the family with strange people. He joined the Union Army at age of nineteen and served three years or more; after the Civil war he returned to Scott county, and at the age of twenty-five married Miss Rosina Heisserer who was a daughter of Anton Heis- serer. The latter, who came to America in 1848, was born in Alsace, Germany, and lo- cated near New Hamburg, Missouri. He lost his eye-sight two years later, and lived thirty- six years longer in blindness. Constantine and Rosina continued their occupation of farming with such success that they acquired two hun- dred and twenty-five acres of land. In August, 1907, they retired from the farm and are now living at hearty old age at Kelso, Missouri. The family consisted of five sons and seven daughters, nine of whom grew to maturity. In rotation of birth they are as follows : Katie, who died at the age of four; Annie Rosa, the wife of Andrew Robert, lives on a farm (one hundred and seventy acres), which they own, about one mile north of Benton (Scott county), Missouri; Louisa died in her in- fancy-only two weeks old; Frank is now a carpenter, and makes his home with his brother Emil Edward in the old home about one mile northwest of Kelso; Mary is Mrs. John B. Enderle and they live about one- fourth of a mile north of Kelso, on the J. (Harve) Ancell farm which they now own, consisting of one hundred and twenty acres. Leo was born June 29, 1880. Willie died in infancy-only two weeks old; Miss Amanda makes her home with her father ; Emil Edward owns the old homestead ; his wife is Miss Dora (Welter) Dohogne; Alvina Christine is Mrs. Philip J. Seyer and resides in Stoddard coun- ty, having recently purchased a part of the J. M. Richmond farm, which they now oc- cupy and own ; Miss Pauline Josephine makes
her home with her father; Benjamin-the baby of the family, nineteen years old, works for (and lives with) his brother, Emil Ed- ward.
In May, 1906, Leo Dohogne secured an in- terest in about seventy-two acres of land, ad- joining the towns of Ancell and Fornfelt, Mis- souri. He owns four lots in Fornfelt, and also one-half interest in five other lots in the same town. He has extensive interests in bank stock in various places. In the Vanduser Bank (Scott county), he owns five shares; in the Southeast Missouri Trust Company of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he owns five shares; in the Bank of New Hamburg, Mis- souri, he owns five shares; in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Kelso, where he is the cashier, he owns twelve shares; he has been cashier of the last named bank since Decem- ber 20, 1904, when he succeeded Lee L. Al- bert of Cape Girardeau. In the fall of 1910, he served six weeks as county treasurer, when he was appointed by Governor Herbert S. Hadley to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- nation of Joseph S. Norrid. While his term of office was short, yet he filled it with much credit. County Clerk James McPheeters (Democrat), June 6, 1912, in speaking of Mr. Dohogne's work, voluntarily stated that : "The Final Settlement as Out-going County Treasurer of Leo Dohogne was one of the neatest, and most systematic pieces of work that has ever been turned in to the county clerk's office. He is a staunch Republican, and noted for his interest in public affairs, and an admirer of beautiful homes and neat bookkeeping work.
Mr. Dohogne attended the Cape Normal school in 1901 and 1902, (having prior to that time worked on the farm with his father) ; the following year he attended the Gem City Business College of Quincy, Illinois, gradu- ating from the commercial banking and shorthand department on October 17, 1903. He handles life, fire and tornado insurance, and is a notary public ; these being side-issues to his position as cashier in the bank. In the life insurance field he takes pleasure in show- ing the public what a good thing it would be to insure in the Northwestern Mutual of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin-the company he repre- sents here, while in the fire and tornado in- surance department he handles only good re- liable companies such as the Aetna of Hart- ford, Connecticut, the American Central of St. Louis, Missouri, and others-continually
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seeking good protection for his people in gen- eral.
The union of Leo Dohogne and Miss Louise Rosa Diebold took place on May 19, 1908. Mrs. Dohogne is the daughter of Frank L. Diebold,-a well known and thrifty farmer residing at and adjoining the county seat of Scott county, on the north. There have come into the home of Louise and Leo Dohogne a daughter, (Eva Mary) born February 28, 1909; two sons, namely : Cletus Joseph, born June 15, 1910; and Linus Emil, born Decem- ber 22, 1911. All are good Catholics.
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