USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 105
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Pleasant M. Malcolm was born June 19, 1867, in Henry county, Tennessee, near the town of Paris. Until he was seventeen he worked on a farm and went to the public schools. He tanght for one year and then at- tended the Paris high school for a year. He
began his study of medicine with Dr. A. J. Weldon, of Paris Landing, and remained un- der his tutelage nearly two years. In October, 1888, he entered the University of Tennessee and in 1893 graduated from its medical de- partment.
When Dr. Malcolm finished his course in the University he began to practice in his na- tive county and remained there seven years. During this period he continued his studies at intervals, taking a graduate course at Van- derbilt University in 1904, and two years later attending the New York Polyclinic School for a year. He had moved to Sikeston in June, 1900, and has practiced here ever since.
Mrs. Malcolm, too, is a native of Henry county, Tennessee. She is the daughter of R. E. and Ann Roberts Perry, of that place, where she, Martha J. Perry, was born Novem- ber 7, 1869. Her marriage to Dr. Malcolm took place in 1890, on January 8. Seven chil- dren were born to them, who are all living ex- cept Perry, who died in 1907, at the age of three, and Melissa, who was born in 1894 and lived to be but six. The eldest daughter, Lola, born November 26, 1890, is married to James Smith, Jr., a real estate dealer of Sikeston. Roland, two years her junior, is a farmer. Earley, Wade and Pleasant, Jr., are still schoolboys, being aged fifteen, twelve and ten respectively.
Dr. Malcolm has served two years as alder- man and was mayor from 1908 to 1910. Dur- ing this period the city hall was built and the city water works installed. Another accom- plishment of Dr. Malcolm's was putting the cemetery into good condition and placing its maintenance on a sound financial basis.
Three miles southeast of town is a farm of two hundred and seventy acres which is the property of Dr. Malcolm. General farming is what is practiced on this place. The resi- dence of the family is in town, where Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm are interested members of the Baptist church and where he is affiliated with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Ben Hur lodges. The Doctor is in every respect a rep- resentative citizen of Sikeston, esteemed equally for his eminence in his profession and for his many admirable qualities as an indi- vidual.
WARREN CATONDER LAMBERT. One of the best known of Benton's citizens, both in pri- vate enterprise and in public office, is Mr. W. C. Lambert. Perhaps Mr. Lambert inherits his progressive spirit from his father, Ira B.
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Lambert, whose early death cut off a life of is a Methodist. Few men have such a record marked usefulness and varied activity. Ira as office holders, and Mr. Lambert's popular- ity in the Democratic party may be judged from the fact that he has held office for thirty- five years. He has served as deputy asses- sor, collector, justice of the peace, coroner, treasurer and presiding judge of the county court, not to mention fifteen years on the school board. B. Lambert was a Kentuckian by birth. He was born in 1818 and moved to Scott county, Missouri, at an early age. Here he married Louisa Berry, born near Benton in 1831. Three sons were the issue of the union, of whom only Warren C. of this sketch, is now alive. The father died in 1852, at the early age of thirty-four. His wife survived him nearly fifty years, passing away in Benton in 1891.
Warren C. Lambert was born October 18, 1849, in Scott county, on the farm which he still owns and tills. His has been a career of success and he has been closely connected with the development of this section of the country. He has accumulated six hundred acres of land, paying from five to twenty-five dollars an acre for it and it is now valued at one hundred dollars an acre. Besides having fol- lowed farming all his life, Mr. Lambert has been engaged in the mercantile trade. He is now the owner of a general merchandise store, incorporated for ten thousand dollars.
In 1874 Mr. Lambert was married to Mrs. Amanda Seaford, and their daughter, Ida Thompson, now living in Minnesota, was born March 22, 1875. When Ida was a year old her mother died, and two years later Mr. Lambert married a second time, the bride in this union being Miss Mary McCorkel, of Scott county. In 1881 occurred the marriage of Mr. Lambert to Miss Josephine Sewell. They had eight children : Bertie L., horn Jan- uary 10, 1882; Warren C., Jr., born July 30, 1883, married to Julia Adams and now living on a farm near Benton; Charley. January 3, 1885, married to Clara Peters, with whom he lived in Bollinger county until July 16, 1907, on which date he was drowned; Claude, born October 30, 1886, now married and living in St. Louis; William J., born October 29, 1888; Roly Raymon, born October 8, 1890; and twins, Nanna Jessie and Anna Bessie, born August 4, 1892. Josephine Sewell Lambert died, April 19, 1908. Mr. Lambert's fourth marriage was solemnized February 25, 1910, when he was united to Mrs. Louise Cloar Mil- ler, daughter of Elijah and Mary Harrison Cloar, and formerly wife of Jesse E. Miller. Mrs. Lambert was born in 1862. on October 17. She has two daughters. Hattie Mand and Maggie May Miller.
The Woodmen of the World and the Con- catenated Order of the Hoo Hoos are Mr. Lambert's lodges. In church affiliation he
For the past fifteen years Mr. Lambert has been a grain dealer ; nor does this complete the list of his business connections in Benton. He was vice-president of the Benton Bank from the time of its organization until he moved to Cape Girardeau.
CHARLES NORMAN MOZLEY is a native of Illinois, in which state his father, James M. Mozley, was also born, near Vienna. In 1863, though not seventeen years old, James Mozley entered the Union army and served in the Sixth Illinois Cavalry until the close of the war. His marriage to Susan M. Webb took place January 31, 1866, in Johnson county, Illinois. His bride was not eighteen years old at the time, as she was born Decem- ber 30, 1848, near Dexter, Missouri. The young couple lived on a farm in Elvira county, in Illinois, and James Mozley ran a general store besides cultivating the soil. In this way the family lived until 1884, when the father was appointed guard at the state penitentiary and they moved to Jonesboro. Mr. Mozley held this position for about two years. He was a Republican in politics and both he and his wife were members of the Christian church. His death occurred at Jonesboro in 1890. His wife is still living, at Benton, Missouri, where her unmarried daugh- ter, Maggie, resides with her. Three other children of the five born to James and Susan Mozley are still surviving. These are Samuel T., married to Helen Williford and living in Oklahoma : Louisa, the wife of Dr. J. J. Robin- son, of Ridgeway, South Carolina, and Charles Norman, of Benton, whose life is briefly outlined in this sketch.
On September 5, 1870, Charles N. Mozley was born at Elvira, Illinois. He attended the common schools of Jonesboro and in that town began his business career. His first work was offered him as the result of an accident in which he smashed a plate-glass window for Mr. Ury, one of Jonesboro's leading mer- chants. Mr. Mozley remained in school until he was eighteen, clerking during his vacations for Mr. Ury and for another merchant in
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Jonesboro. At eighteen he taught one term of school and then went back to clerk in the same building where he had his first job. Later he bought a stock of groceries in the adjoining room and went into partnership with William Hoss. His partner did not stay long in the firm, but Mr. Mozley continued to conduct his grocery business alone for about a year. By that time he was ready to branch out in the mercantile work, so he moved into the building where he had begun to work, added a stock of general merchandise and car- ried on a thriving business until 1903. All this time he was continuing his education by reading law. While a clerk he borrowed law books from the lawyers of Jonesboro and spent his evenings in study. Later he took a cor- respondenee course from the Sprague Corres- pondence School of Detroit. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1903.
After going out of business in Jonesboro, Mr. Mozley sold his home there and moved to Thebes, Illinois. This was at the time of the building of the bridge in the river town and Mr. Mozley remained there practicing law until August, 1905, when he moved to Benton. He was admitted to the Missouri bar in Oc- tober, 1906, the same year in which he was first elected prosecuting attorney. He took the oath of office in January, 1907. In 1908 the Democratic party again selected him as their candidate for this office and he was re- elected, serving until January 1, 1911. Mr. Mozley has never had a partner in his legal business.
Mrs. Mozley was formerly Miss Allie Lee, of Jonesboro, Illinois, daughter of Isaac and Adalia Lec, of the same place. The date of her birth was January 1, 1877. Her sister Clara is also a resident of Benton, the wife of Thomas E. Sitton. Mr. and Mrs. Mozley have three children, Norman, Donald and Tod- die, aged sixteen, fourteen and twelve years, respectively. Miss Lee became Mrs. Mozley March 29, 1895. The Mozleys are members of the Methodist church, South.
ALBERT DE REIGN. Herman De Reign, father of Albert De Reign, of Benton, was a native of Germany. He left the fatherland when but a young man to try his fortune in America and settled in Peoria, Illinois, in 1848. Seven years afterward he was married to Marie Kline, widow of Frank Urban, who had emigrated to America when about six- teen years of age. Her birthplace was Col- mar, a city of Alsace, France. She had had
six children by her first marriage and three more were born to her and Mr. De Reign: Albert, born in 1856; Minnie, now Mrs. J. R. Brewer, born in 1858; and Emma, two years younger, now married to Mr. Ira Neal. The father, Herman De Reign, died about 1861 or 1862, before the children were grown up, and Mrs. De Reign became the wife of Joseph Kosminski, a fresco and scene painter, who brought up Albert and his sisters, beside four children of his own of whom she was the mother. The family lived a short time in St. Louis after they left Peoria and then moved to Marion, Kentucky, where both the father and mother died, the father in August, 1879, and the mother, June 5, 1880.
Albert De Reign was born May 27, 1856, in Peoria, Illinois. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to his step-father as a fresco painter and learned that trade, working at it until he was twenty-four years old. Four years earlier he had begun to read law with Mr. J. W. Blue, of Marion, Kentucky, so when he left his trade of painting he was ready to practice law and on the twelfth of June, 1880, he was admitted to the Kentucky bar.
Mr. De Reign's practice of his chosen pro- fession has been in Southeastern Missouri, and almost entirely in his office in Benton, as he came here in the October after his admission to the bar, and the community has given fre- quent evidence of its appreciation of his su- periority in legal and civic matters. In law business Mr. De Reign has always worked alone. The nearest he has ever come to hav- ing a partner was when he shared an office with Marshall Arnold at the time of his coming to Benton.
The Democratic party was quick to recog- nize the value of the young lawyer to its con- stituency, and before he had been a resident of Benton three years he was elected prose- cuting attorney of the county. To this office he was twice reelected, serving three terms in all. Later his party availed themselves of his prestige and genius for organization in the Democratic state central committee, of which he was chairman for several years. In 1895 he was elected to the legislature and served one term. In 1904 he received the en- dorsement of the county for circuit judge, but was defeated by Judge Riley.
Mr. De Reign's son, Morrell, is preparing to follow the profession in which his father has won distinction, being now engaged in studying law at the State University of Mis- souri. Morrell De Reign is the only living
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child of Albert and Mary McPhewters Wiley De Reign, the latter a daughter of James and Amelia Burnham McPhewters and formerly wife of William Wiley. Mrs. Wiley became Mrs. De Reign, May 4, 1885, and Morrell was born four years later. Mrs. De Reign has three children by her first marriage. These are Charles Wiley, cashier of the Farmers Bank, of Commerce, Missouri; Fanny, who married Professor Goodin, of Jackson, Mis- souri ; and Addie, now Mrs. V. L. Harris, of Benton.
Being one of the old members of the state bar association Mr. De Reign has witnessed marvelous changes in conditions in this por- tion of Missouri. At the time he located in Benton the land in Scott county which now sells from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty dollars an acre was practically worthless, being an area of extensive swamps at that time. Mr. De Reign has utilized his wide and inter- esting experiences in his literary work, for which he has no little aptitude. His contribu- tions to the different magazines include articles on special subjects, sketches and short stories.
The De Reign family are cosmopolitan in matters of religion. Albert De Reign is a Presbyterian, while his wife belongs to the Methodist church, South. Herman De Reign, Albert's father, was a Lutheran; his wife, Marie, a Roman Catholic; and Kosminski, Al- bert De Reign's step-father, was a communi- cant of the Greek church. Mr. De Reign holds membership in the Masonic order.
AMOS L. DRURY. The present county treas- urer was born in Ste. Genevieve county of this state. The same county was the birthplace of his father, Jules C. Drury, and of his mother, Mary (Hipes) Drury. The father, Jules, was born in 1847, July 14, and the mother two days and seven years later. They were mar- ried in 1869, and are still living at Illino. They had nine children, who are all alive ex- cept Peter, who died in infancy. Two daugh- ters, Gussie and Jennie, are living at Illino. Mary E. is Mrs. L. J. Dannenmeuller of Kelso. Landra married Dory Dannenmeuller and lives at Ancell. Bertha, Mrs. F. Clark- son, resides at Charleston. The sons are Moses B., of St. Louis; Eugene, of Poplar Bluff; and Amos L. of Benton, all married. Anna is Mrs. Charles Hunter, of Forrenfeldt.
Amos Louis Drury is just forty years old, born November 19, 1871. His father, a mer- chant farmer, sent him to the common
schools and later to Jones' Commercial Col- lege of St. Louis. After graduating from this school Mr. Drury came to Scott county and engaged in farming. He continued to farm until 1906, when he moved to Kelso and ran a hotel and a barber shop. He resumed his farming very soon and continued his other business enterprises as well. While residing in Kelso he was mayor of the town, serving his fifth term. When elected to the office of county treasurer in 1910, he moved to Ben- ton.
Mr. Drury is married and has eight chil- dren. His wife was formerly Bertha E. Heis- serer, daughter of Magdalena and Charles Heisserer, of Kelso. Mrs. Drury was born in 1876. Her marriage to Mr. Drury took place October 29, 1896. The names and dates of birth of their children are as follows: Benja- min, October 9, 1897; Stella, who died in in- fancy ; Lambert, born August 12, 1902; Sadie, January 25, 1904; Gregory, November 4, 1905 ; Enos, September 14, 1907; Lena, June 10, 1909; and Emmet, April 10, 1911.
All the Drury family are Roman Catho- lies and both Amos and his father are up- holders of the policies of the Democratic party.
CHARLES HARRIS. In appointing, on Sep- tember 8, 1910, Charles Harris to the super- intendency of the county schools, Governor Hadley selected a citizen of Scott county who brings to that responsibility not merely a broad education and experience in teaching, but one who has come up with honor through the hard discipline of toil and privation. He knows how to value both learning and knowl- edge, for he has bought them with a price. In April, 1911, Mr. Harris was elected county superintendent for a term of four years.
Both of Mr. Harris' parents were born in Missouri; his father, Benjamin T. Harris, in Ripley county, in 1835, and his mother in Cape Girardeau county, in 1849. Her maiden name was Sarah Masterson. She was mar- ried to Mr. Harris about 1870, and they had three childen. One of these died in infancy ; the other two were Charles, the present sup- erintendent of the county schools, and a brother, two years younger, named for his father, Benjamin T. Harris. The younger son married Addie Spradling and lived in Scott county.
Charles was born November 11, 1873, in Commerce, Scott county. When he was two years old his father died and at the age of
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four the mother also passed away. At the age of sixteen Charles came to Benton to at- tend the common schools. By working nights mornings and Saturdays he was able to make his way. During the summers he worked on the farms and thus earned money for clothes and got a little ahead for the winter. An edu- cation was for him
"The spur that the clear spirit doth raise
To scorn delights and live laborious days." By indomitable ambition and ceaseless indus- try he managed to complete not only the course in Benton, but to attend Marvin Col- lege at Fredericktown and the normal at Cape Girardeau. When Mr. Hugh Smith resigned from the position of county superintendent in August, 1910, Mr. Harris was selected to fill the vacancy.
Mr. Harris is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge. Though not a politician, he belongs to the Republican party. In his religious pref- erences he favors the Methodist church, South.
VAN LESLIE HARRIS was born in Obion county, Tennessee, the eldest of twelve chil- dren. The parents, Martin Van Buren and Martha Brown Harris, moved to Missouri in the fall of the year in which Van Leslie was horn and settled in Scott county. This was in 1871, when the father and mother were thirty- five and twenty-three years old, respectively. Martin V. Harris carried on a mercantile business in addition to farming. He was thirty years in business at Morley, and the store he established is still running under the name of the P. H. Boyce Mercantile Com- pany. Seven of his children are still living and most of them live in or near Morley, the scene of their childhood. They are: Clarence D. Harris; Etna, Mrs. S. P. Marshall ; Pau- lina. Mrs. L. J. Welman: Lillian Harris ; A dell Wiley Harris; and Estella G., the wife of O. V. Elmore. Van Leslie has lived in Benton since 1896.
The junior partner of the Moore-Harris Ab- stract Company went to school until twenty- one vears of age. In addition to the course of study of the public schools Mr. Harris had the advantage of training at Bellview In- stitute and at the State University. In 1891 he was married to Miss Virginia Harrison, who died at the birth of their son Maurice, January 11, 1892. She had received her edu- cation at the Cape Girardeau Normal. Some- thing over ten years after her death Mr. Har- ris married Addie, daughter of William and
Alice MePheeters Wiley. She was born in Scott county, in the year 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have had three children : Mary M. died at the age of two, Mildred A. was born Au- gust 4, 1908, and Leslie M., two years later, on the fourteenth of the same month.
After his first marriage Mr. Harris went into mercantile business for himself at Mor- ley, but discontinued it after two years. In 1896 he was made deputy recorder of Scott county and at the next election became re- corder, an office which he held until 1906. Since that date he has been associated with Mr. Moore in the abstract business, although his interest in real estate antedates his en- trance into the Moore-Harris firm by many years. The swamp lands in particular engage Mr. Harris' attention.
Mr. Harris belongs to the Democratic party in politics. His father, Martin Van Buren Harris, was a staunch Democrat.
GEORGE A. REAVES. The father of George A. Reaves, Felix G. Reaves, was born in Umphus county, Tennessee, in 1818. When seventeen years old he came to New Madrid county, where he worked by the day and by the month until he got a start. He was married to Parilee Cormack, who was also born in Ten- nessee and was four years his junior. Both died in this county, the former in 1895 and the latter in 1882.
George A. Reaves was born in New Madrid county, in 1852, and passed his boyhood in the customary fashion of farmers' sons of those days. His education was obtained al- most exclusively in subscripton schools and he helped on the home farm until he was married. This was when he was twenty-three and a half years old, and his first bride was Mary C., daughter of William R. Carson, born in Dunklin county, but reared in New Madrid.
For three years after his marriage Mr. Reaves rented forty acres of land and then bought one hundred and fifteen acres on credit. Later he purchased five acres more. at a cost of $1,100 for the one hundred and twenty. At present he owns four hundred and twenty acres of valuable land and raises wheat, corn and cotton as his chief crops. In live stock he has seventy-five hogs, eighteen horses, thirty cattle, thirty-five geese and seventy sheep. His farm is well improved and he uses up-to-date machinery.
William A. Reaves, George Reaves' son by his first marriage, is married and lives on a farm near Hayward Pemiscot county. He
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owns seventy acres and rents seventy more. Four children of his second wife, Bettie Nolan Reaves, are married and one, Dixie Neville, is at home. The married ones are George A., junior, who lives in Portageville with his wife, Margaret Hinman Reaves. He runs a saw mill in Arkansas. Ernest B. Reaves also re- sides in Portageville, where he has a farm and is also a drug clerk. His wife was formerly Miss O'Kelly. Velma, Mrs. J. D. Parks, lives at Newport, Arkansas. The present Mrs. George A. Reaves, senior, was formerly Miss Dixie Ellington, of Kentucky, where she was born on June 12, 1871. Her one daughter, Gladys, is with her parents.
Mr. Reaves is a Democrat, but has never desired any offices in the gift of his party. He is a member of the Masonic order at Point Pleasant and of the Odd Fellows at Portage- ville. He has been treasurer of the latter body for six years. He holds membership in two other lodges of Portageville, the Wood- men of the World and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. He is a valued member of the South Methodist church, in which he has served twenty years as steward and three years as Sunday-school superintendent.
WALTER GARY. It is the fortunate portion of J. W. Gary not only to have contrib- uted to the material development and the moral advancement of the community, but to witness his children carrying on with even increased zeal the work of adding to the power and righteousness of the country ..
J. W. Gary was born in Graves county, Kentucky, February 27, 1848. His parents, Sabe and Adeline Gary, were born in that state, in Logan county. The son grew up in the state of his birth and married Martha Cartwright, and with his bride moved to southwestern Missouri, where they remained for three years, after which they took up their permanent residence in this county. Ten children were born of their union, five sons and five daughters. James Elbert Gary is depot agent in Doniphan, in which place the two other sons, Walter and Otis, also are in business. The daughters are Addie L., Nora A., Hattie B., Emma C. and Clara.
J. W. Gary is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, as well as a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Ancient Order of United Work- men. He is a deacon in the Missionary Bap- tist church, of which his family are all interested members. In politics he is an un-
compromising Republican and was one of the first seven voters of that ticket in the county.
Walter W. Gary, his son, was born in Graves county, Kentucky, in 1876, May 27th being the date of his birth. His schooling was received in this county, where he attended the high school after completing the common school course, and when he left the high school he entered the Ripley County Bank as book- keeper and is still connected with that institu- tion, where his faithful and efficient work has brought about his promotion to the post of assistant cashier. He owns residence property in town and a tenant house as well.
Like his father, Walter Gary is a Republi- can, and, like him too, he is a worker in the Baptist church of the city. He contributes generously to all its activities and has been for some time the secretary of the Sunday- school. His lodge affiliations are with the Modern Woodmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His high place in the esteem and admiration of the community is due to his many fine qualities of mind and heart, as well as to the many traits which have made him a power and influence in the business life of the city.
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