USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 107
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Reared to the invigorating influences of the old homestead farm, Dr. J. F. Riddle received his preliminary educational training in the neighboring district schools. While still a youth he pursued a two-year course in the State Normal School, and when he had reached his nineteenth year he began to teach school. His first pedagogic work was in the winter sessions of the country schools and in the 'summer seasons he assisted his father in the work and management of the old home farm. Deciding upon the medical profession as his life work, he entered the University of Ten- nessee, at Nashville, in which excellent insti- tution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, with his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Since that time Dr. Riddle has pursued post-graduate work in Washington University, at St. Louis. He in- itiated the active practice of his profession at Bernie, in 1894, and here he has resided dur- ing the long intervening years to the present time. He has won recognition as one of the most skilled physicians and surgeons in Stod- dard county and he controls an extensive pat- ronage in Bernie and in the territory normally tributary thereto. He is a great student of the profession and is constantly keeping in touch with the advances made along the line of his chosen field of labor. He is interested
in politics only inasmuch as it affects the wel- fare of the community and country at large. He was one of the promoters of the Bank of Bernie, and is its president. In addition to his other interests he is the owner of a twelve- story concrete business block at Bernie and during his active career he has built eight.or ten fine residence buildings, all of which he has disposed of to eager purchasers.
Dr. Riddle is the owner of a tract of five hundred acres of improved bottom land in Stoddard county, and on this estate, in addi- tion to diversified agriculture, are kept one hundred and fifty head of stock. The Doctor is possessed of remarkable executive ability and is conducting his multifarious business interests in a most creditable manner. He has witnessed land in this section advance from one dollar and a quarter per acre to the pres- ent good prices. In connection with the work of his profession he is affiliated with a number of representative organizations, and frater- nally he is a valued and appreciative member of the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Dr. Riddle has been twice married. In 1895 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Rose Evans, a daughter of Squire Evans, of Bernie. She died, without issue, in 1899. In 1904 the Doctor was united in marriage to Miss Ella Fonville, who was born and reared in Stod- dard county and who is a daughter of W. F. Fonville. Dr. and Mrs. Riddle have two children, Franklin and Halcyon.
LOUIS LARSON. The state of Missouri has within its limits representatives from almost every country in the world, and among those who have settled here and who look back to Denmark as the place of their birth is Louis Larson, whose identity with Stoddard county covers a period of thirty years.
Louis Larson was born in Yutland, Den- mark, February 24, 1857, a son of full-blooded Danes. His father was a North Sea fisherman, and the boy was brought up to be a sailor. He had the usual amount of schooling customary in Denmark until he was fourteen years of age. Then he ran away from home and went to Norway. For two years he sailed on Nor- wegian ships, he studied navigation and reached the rank of second mate. At the age of sixteen he came to America. For five years he sailed the ocean on English and South American trade vessels, visiting various ports in both the new and the old world. At the age
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of twenty-one, in Boston, he joined the Ameri- can navy, enlisting as an able seaman and for twenty-nine months was on the U. S. S. "Van- dalia;" afterward on the "Wabash," the "Colorado," and the "New York," all of which were in the North Atlantic fleet. It was in August, 1878, that he joined the navy, and he was in the service nearly two years, when he was honorably discharged, having meantime been promoted to chief petty officer.
Following his discharge from the navy, young Larson returned to Norway, where he met the sister of his shipmate, Lena Tolleb- sen whom he married after a brief courtship, and who returned with him that same year, 1881, to America. She was born in Norway, February 11, 1860. Her parents also came to America, and are now residents of Providence, Rhode Island. Of Mr. Larson's family, one sister and three brothers are now living, all in the old country except one brother who resides iu McAlester, Oklahoma. He had an uncle living in Missouri, and after returning to America with his bride Mr. Larson decided to settle down on land, and, as he says, "to get as far away from the ocean wave as pos- sible," so he came to Missouri. Arrived here, he was completely "broke," as he had spent all the money he had to make the journey, but he was ambitious and willing to work, and took the first thing that offered, which was farm work at ten dollars a month, on land near the farm he now owns. For nearly three years he was a wage worker. Then he bought forty acres of land, covered with timber, built a lit- tle shack, and at once went to work, chopping, grubbing and clearing. Seven years later he bought forty acres of adjoining land, which he also cleared, and of the eighty acres he now owns sixty-seven acres are under cultivation. Nearly all this work of clearing has been done by his own hands. His chief crop is corn, which he feeds to his stock. He annually raises from forty to fifty head of hogs, keeps an average of fifteen head of Hereford cattle, and always has several horses.
To Mr. and Mrs. Larson have been given twelve children, of whom six are now living, as follows : Lydia, wife of Fred Moore; Mary, wife of Oscar Clark; Martin E., who married Mary Kirby, cultivates a part of his father's farm and another one; Carrie, widow of Lil- born Clark; Thomas B. and Lewis C .- all res- idents of Stoddard county. At this writing the grandchildren of Louis and Lena Larson number nine.
Politically Mr. Larson is a Democrat. Fra- ternally he is identified with the M. W. of A. at Bloomfield, and both he and his wife belong to the R. W. of A. at Aid.
MILO GRESHAM. Early in the nineteenth century the grandparents of Milo Gresham on both his father's and his mother's side, moved from Smith county, Tennessee to Pope county, southern Illinois, where they were among the pioneers. There in 1836 Elijah Benjamin Franklin Gresham was born on November 22d, and two years later, in the same county, Sophia Delilah Ellis, afterwards his wife and the mother of his five children who grew to maturity. Four of these have settled in Missouri. One, Joshua A., lives in Metropolis, Illinois. He has been twice mar- ried. The vicinity of Sikeston is the home of Mrs. William R. Barnes, nee Matilda Gresham, and of Ella, who married Oscar L. Whiteside. Mayme C. is the wife of Claude Boyer, a dredge-boat craneman, living at Morehouse. Milo is one of the leading attor- neys of Sikeston. E. B. F. Gresham was a carpenter by trade and he also worked at farming and in the mercantile business. His church was the Universalist, while his wife was a Baptist. She passed away about 1888; her husband still lives in Illinois, at Creal Springs.
Milo Gresham was born April 18, 1867, on a farm seven miles northwest of Golconda, Illinois. Until he was twenty-one he went to school and taught. He attended the school in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he took pen- manship and a commercial course. After fin- ishing school Mr. Gresham worked in a drug store in Elizabethtown, Illinois, for some time.
On July 15, 1890, he came to Sikeston, and one month later his marriage to Miss Emma J. Whiteside took place. Emma was born in Pope county, Illinois, in 1869, her parents being John and Martha Harper Whiteside. She had gone to school to Mr. Gresham when he taught in Illinois. One son, Murray, and three daughters, Ruth, Emma and Martha, born to Milo and Emma Gresham are still living. Mrs. Gresham is a member of the Methodist church, South.
Mr. Gresham came to Sikeston intending to teach, but the principalship he expected to get had been filled, so he turned to other means of livelihood. Sikeston had never had a jewelry store up to this time, so he started one, besides setting up a barber shop with the
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first revolving chair ever seen in town. It is Mr. Gresham's habit to be the first to in- troduce new appliances.
Soon after coming to Sikeston he became identified with the newspaper business of the city and has maintained his connection with it until the last two years. Characteristically he was the first person to bring a power press to Sikeston.
While running his newspaper Mr. Gresham began to read law and was soon admitted to the bar at New Madrid. Until two years ago he was always without a partner, but at that time he went into business with Mr. T. B. Dudley. Mr. Gresham bought the first su- preme and appellate reports ever in any Sik- eston library. He and Mr. Dudley have the best equipped law office in Scott county.
Mr. Gresham is a Democrat and has held various city offices. He has been city clerk, city collector and city attorney, which last office he has held the past twelve years. He is now city collector.
In practice Mr. Gresham has the remark- able record of never having a client convicted whose case he undertook to defend. He has defended a dozen men charged with murder in the first degree.
F. P. FOSTER, one of the financially substan- tial citizens of Ardeola, Stoddard county, Mis- souri, divides his time between this place and Cape Girardeau, at both of which points he has extensive interests.
Mr. Foster is a native of Cape Girardeau, born August 5, 1851. In 1856 the family home was changed to Stoddard county, where, on a farm, he was reared and reached his ma- jority, leaving the old home then to become the head of a household of his own. This lo- cality was sparsely settled then and schools were poor and few, and so his opportunity for obtaining an education was of a neces- sity limited. Besides, his boyhood days were full of work, work that left him little time for books. His father died when he was two years old; his mother subsequently married, and his stepfather, William Hicks, died a few months after coming into the family. Then the Civil war came on, and young Foster's older brothers (he being the fourth in order of birth of his mother's children living at that time, six having died in infancy) went to the front as soldiers in the Southern army. Being too young for the ranks, he remained at home with his mother, and, as he expresses
it, it was a case of "root hog or die." The Northern soldiers raided this part of the country ; they took away all the stock on the widow Hicks' farm and completely demol- ished everything on the place. Young Fos- ter remained with his mother, and after the war was over continued to cultivate her eighty-acre farm until he was twenty-one, when he married.
Not long after his marriage Mr. Foster bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Ardeola, on which he lived from 1873 until 1882, during which time he cleared all this land with the exception of about twenty-five acres; erected barn and eight-room house and made other improvements and de- veloped a fine farm, worth today about fifty dollars an acre. Also he helped to build all the roads in this immediate neighborhood. In the meantime he also became interested in business. In 1878 he opened a general store at what was known as Piketon, and which the following year he moved to Ardeola, where he has made most of his money. His business career here began before the advent of the railroad. He has prospered as the country has prospered, and today he is the owner of a large amount of real estate in various parts of the country, as well as at Cape Girardeau, where he has made his home a part of the time since 1893. At one time he practically owned the whole of the town of Ardeola, and he still has large holdings there, including his own residence, six dwell- ings which he rents, store buildings and black- smith shop, and about three hundred acres of land just south of the railroad. At Cape Girardeau he owns three brick houses and several frame ones, besides other property there and elsewhere, and at this writing his farm land scattered about in various places totals 1,010 acres. And while he has all this property in his own name, he has at different times given to his children to the amount of 720 acres of land, all cleared and valued at fifty dollars an acre.
Mr. Foster's first marriage, October 1, 1872, near Ardeola, was to Miss Margaret A. Smith, whose death occurred March 8, 1876. She left one daughter, Clara, who married W. J. Garner, and who now lives near Ardeola. On October 20, 1876, Mr. Foster and Nancy J. Taylor were united in marriage, near Equilla, and the fruit of this union was one daughter, Ara Adkinson, of near Ardeola. His second wife having died April 11, 1881, Mr. Foster
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on May 20, 1882, married her cousin, Mary Taylor, who bore him four children: Harry W., Fred, Ernest B. and Moses F., the last two named now being residents of Cape Gir- ardeau. This wife and mother was killed in a runaway accident near Ardeola, Angust 7, 1905. His present companion, Mr. Foster, married at Dexter, June 6, 1906. She was formerly Miss Martha E. MeQueen, and his children by her are Robert T. and Frank P., botlı at home.
Politically Mr. Foster is a Democrat, and fraternally he is an Elk, having membership in the B. P. O. E. at Cape Girardeau.
E. F. SHARP is a citizen of many interests as befits one of his broad education and large experience. He was born in Iowa, in 1876, on January 24th, near Masonville. His father was a farmer at that time and his son had the advantages of the excellent schools for which that state is justly famed. Mr. Sharp attended the high school in Dexter and the Normal in the same town, graduating in 1895. While studying in school he pursued the lit- erary course. For a year after his graduation he taught mathematics in the Dexter Normal and also taught in the country. He then went to the State University at Iowa City and took a law course, graduating in 1898.
Mr. Sharp began his career as a lawyer in Dexter, Iowa, his home town. He stayed there two years and then spent another year in Ne- braska before coming to New Madrid in 1901. In New Madrid he continued to practice law and was also auditor of the St. Louis and Memphis Railway for three years.
In 1900, at New Madrid, occurred the mar- riage of Mr. Sharp and Mabel, daughter of Seth Barnes. Mrs. Sharp was born on St. Valentine's day of the centennial year of our nation's history. The four children of her union with Mr. Sharp are all at home. Their names are Byron, Laura, Selma and Edwina.
The bank of Marston was organized in 1906, Mr. Seth Barnes and his son-in-law, E. F. Sharp being the chief promoters of the enter- prise. Ever since its organization Mr. Sharp has been the cashier, and is now one of the directors. He owns four hundred and sixty acres of land near Marston, which he rents. This land is cleared and has six houses on it. Some town property and interests in the Barnes Store Company and the Marston Coop- erage Company fill up the count of Mr. Sharp's commercial undertakings in Marston.
The cashier of the Bank of Marston does not confine himself exclusively to financial en- terprises. He is active in the work of the Methodist church, South, of which he is one of the influential members and superintendent of the Sunday school. He holds membership in four lodges, the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Elks and the Woodmen of the World. In politics he is a Republican, as one would ex- pect of an Iowan. He is prominent in the councils of his party, who have been quick to avail themselves of his influence and exper- ience in legal practice. He has been a candi- date for county judge and for state repre- sentative.
WILLIAM GRAHAM is a native of New Mad- rid county, as was his mother, Amanda Town- send Graham. His father, James S., was not so fortunate, but his parents came from Ten- nessee when he was a very small boy and he spent all the rest of his life in the county. William was born November 18, 1857, on a farm which he now owns, situated just three- quarters of a mile east of the one on which . he now lives. His father died when he was but twelve years old and as he grew older he assumed the care of the family. Schools were poor in the county at the time when he was a boy, and as he was eager for an edu- cation he attended the Cape Girardeau Nor- mal for one year and afterwards the Chris- tian Brothers' School, a Catholic institution in St. Lonis. Mr. Graham remained on the farm after finishing his schooling, helping to support his mother and the family of five, until the death of Mrs. Amanda Graham in 1879.
The year following his mother's death, Mr. Graham was married to Miss Laura Ross. She was born in Tennessee, came to Scott county when between five and six years of age, spent seven years in that county and then came to New Madrid county. Two sons and two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Graham. John is married to Lillie Stacy, of New Madrid county, where the couple reside, and John works part of his father's farm. The other three children are still at home: Fred, assisting his father on the home place; Effie going to school in Matthews, and Pauline, attending the normal at Cape Girardeau.
Mr. Graham inherited one hundred and twenty acres of land from his mother at her death, upon which he lived after his marriage for ten years. He improved the old place in
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numerous ways and bought more land as his farming prospered. until 1890, when he moved to New Madrid. He spent three years in town, continuing to farm, and then moved back to the country, to a place near his present resi- dence. At the end of three more years Mr. Graham had built on the farm where he is now living, and in 1906 he took up his resi- dence there. This estate consists of four hun- dred and sixty acres; the farm on which he lived previous to settling on this one is sit- nated seven miles north of New Madrid and contains two hundred and sixteen acres. This has been in his possession for about twenty years.
An influential and popular member of the Democratic party, Mr. Graham served his party six years as county judge. He resigned from this office when he moved to his farm in 1903. In fraternal organizations he is a mem- ber of the Red Men and of the Knights of the Maccabees.
ROBERT J. MILLER. Like several other of New Madrid county's prominent citizens, Mr. Mil- ler is a native of Tennessee. His father, Rufus K. Miller, was born in Obion county, Tennes- see, and his mother, Alice H. Miller, in Maury county of the same state. His parents re- moved to Portageville, where the mother died. Mr. Rufus Miller still resides in the town and has served it in the capacity of justice of the peace for eight years.
Robert J. Miller was born in Obion county, January 11, 1877. He began his education in the district schools of Tennessee and later spent a year in medical college at Memphis, but decided that he preferred business rather than medicine as a career, a decision which his subsequent history has proved a wise one.
Mr. Miller came to New Madrid county in 1891 and engaged in real estate business, in which he is still interested. He has been emi- nently successful not only in his ventures in land, but in other concerns. He is president of the DeLisle Lumber and Box Manufactur- ing Company at Wardell. in which place he also conducted a mercantile establishment for two years. He disposed of this in 1910. The list of stockholders of the Portageville Bank includes Mr. Miller's name, and he owns a thousand acres of land which he rents. In his realty business he is associated with R. H. Truitt, of Chillicothe, Illinois.
Mr. Miller's wife, Cora E. Basham Miller, is a Kentuckian of Mead county. Their mar-
riage occurred December 12, 1899. Their children are Robert C. and Robetta E., both at home. Henrietta died at the age of five. The family are communicants of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Miller is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Mutual Protective League. He also belongs to the K. of C. at Cape Girardeau.
Mr. Miller is a Democrat and has been called upon to serve his party as candidate for the office of county surveyor. He was elected and his able discharge of the duties of the position secured his re-election. Mr. Miller has served as city marshal for several years.
JEFFERSON DAVIS ADAMS. Mr. Adams' par- ents came to this county when they were very young, his father, Jefferson Adams, from Tennessee, and his mother, Lucetta (Gibson) Adams, from Indiana. They were married in this county, where the father died. Mrs. Adams afterward married a Mr. Bell, and Jefferson helped his stepfather on the farm and in his blacksmith shop. He received his education in the district schools.
When twenty-one years of age Mr. Adams made his first crop for himself on eighteen acres of land which he rented. He has con- tinued to rent ever since and now farms one hundred and twenty acres. Beside raising the usual crops of cotton, hay and corn, he trades in livestock.
In 1881 Mr. Adams married Miss Mary Arbuckle from southeastern Missouri. Their family consists of eight children, four of whom are still at home. These are Homer, Huntley, Kittie L. and Gerald. Jefferson Davis, Jun- ior, is deceased. Byrle is in charge of the recruiting office for the United States Army at Joplin, Missouri. Albert is married to Maud Dollar, and they live on a farm, while Ruth, the eldest daughter, is Mrs. A. Bran- ham of Portageville.
Mr. Adams is an enthusiastic upholder of the policies of the Democratic party. He has served as constable and is now road overseer. He is an Odd Fellow and a Woodman of the World. In this latter lodge, he has been man- ager ever since entering the order.
J. R. JOYCE. Although he has retired from active business, J. R. Joyce is a power in the business of Vanduser. He is one of those men who have achieved success by their own unaided efforts and whose lives are a record
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of the triumphs of industry and foresight. Most of his life has been spent in Scott county, although he was born in Cape Gir- ardeau. The date of his birth was February 28, 1857. After living a few years in Cape Girardeau county, Mr. Joyce moved to a farm near Sikeston where he lived for twenty-five years. He was married in 1881 to Amanda Finley, born and reared at Kelso. Four chil- dren were the result of this union, Ada, Ethel, James and Robert. Both the girls are mar- ried; James is in North Dakota and Robert still at home.
When Mr. Joyce left his father's home he had no capital, but by dint of unremitting efforts he accumulated a competence. The bank of Vanduser was organized in Decem- ber, 1906, Mr. Joyce being one of the pro- moters of the enterprise. He has been presi- dent ever since the beginning, and Mr. Wood- win is vice president. Another establishment which Mr. Joyce was instrumental in getting started in Vanduser is the hoop factory. He is also president of this concern which has been in existence since 1908. In real estate Mr. Joyce's holdings include one hundred and thirty acres of farm land besides a number of houses in Vanduser and twenty-eight lots in town. His residence is one of the finest homes in the place and is one which he built.
Mr. Joyce is a valued member of the Metho- dist church and also of the Ben Hur lodge. He is deeply interested in all that makes for the welfare of the community, either economi- cally or socially, and it is his privilege to have assisted materially in the upbuilding of the region.
C. S. DEFIELD. Of all East Prairie's enter- prising and progressive men, no one enjoys a wider popularity or more respect for his busi- ness sagacity than the president of the Farm- ers' Bank, Mr. C. S. DeField. He was born in Michigan, nine miles south of St. Joseph, in January, 1874. When he was fourteen, his parents moved to Kentucky and the following year to Scott county, Missouri. Until he was married he lived with his parents.
In 1894 Mr. DeField was wedded and be- gan life for himself. He received no assist- ance from his family, but he was competent to achieve success unaided. His first location after his marriage was at Wyatt, east of Charleston. Here he conducted a lumber business and did a profitable trade for several years. When he came to East Prairie he con-
tinued for seven years in the same line of work and also farmed. Here, too, he was success- ful, as his judgment in commercial matters is excellent and his personality such that cus- tomers like to trade with him.
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