USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 108
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When the Farmers' Bank was organized, Mr. DeField was one of its chief promoters, as he is now one of its heaviest stockholders. His interests in town and country property are extensive and he is one of the richest men in East Prairie.
Mr. DeField is a member of the Masons and of the Odd Fellows. In these lodges, as every- where else, he is an influential member, popu- lar because of his unassuming disposition and his hearty kindliness of manner.
OTIS W. MILLER is the older son of Jasper Wilson and Nancy Lanpher Miller, of Mil- lersville, Missouri. Jasper Miller was born May 15, 1850, at Millersville. At eighteen he went into the mercantile business in the town of his birth and continued in that occupation until his death, on February 15, 1906. He was a Democrat in political bias and at the time of his death was county clerk of Cape Girardeau county. In his religious faith he was a Universalist and he belonged to the Masons and to the Modern Woodmen. Nancy Lanpher was born in the same town as her husband, just four years and three months later. She was married to Jasper Miller in January, 1876. The children of the marriage were Otis, born March 10, 1877, and Ernest L., October 30, 1883. The latter married Myrtle Hartte and still lives in Millersville.
Otis Miller completed the course of the pub- lie school at about twenty-one years of age and then for three years attended the normal at Cape Girardeau. In 1897 he entered the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating three years later. For a year after his graduation he was house physician at Jef- ferson Hospital in St. Louis. He then opened an office in the city, at 2401 South Broadway, and practiced there for a year.
Dr. Miller's marriage to Miss Helen Zahn was solemnized on December 23, 1901. Mrs. Miller is the daughter of Philip and Lucy Zahn. No children have resulted from this union. Ill health obliged Dr. Miller to seek a different climate and accordingly he went to New Mexico, and was for seven years rail- way physician for the El Paso and North- eastern Railway, having his headquarters at Alamogordo, New Mexico. In addition to his
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duties on the railroad, he was health officer for the city while living in Alamogordo.
The partnership between Dr. Miller and his cousin Dr. T. V. Miller, was entered into in January, 1911. The offices of the firm are in the McCloy-Tanner building, where they have a suite of three rooms, fitted up in the best fashion of the time. In politics, Dr. Mil- ler holds the views of the Democratic party. His lodge connections include the Modern Woodmen, the Knights of Pythias, the An- cient Order of United Workmen, the Elks and the Fraternal Brotherhood. Dr. Miller's pro- fessional record has been one of admirable achievement and it is an assured supposition that the new firm will continue to discharge the duties of the lofty calling of the physician in the same fashion and spirit which have gained its members their well deserved repu- tations.
A. A. EBERT. The name of Ebert has been a familiar one in this section of the country for many years, and those who have borne it have been among those valuable citizens whose enterprise has been of so much worth in the development of the country. Charles Ebert was the founder of the Missouri branch of this family. He was a native of Germany who came to this country when a young man. Here he was married to one of his countrywomen, who had left the Fatherland at about the same time as he had. They first located in Cape Girardeau and later bought a farm in Com- merce. Two sons were born to them; August, who still lies in Cape Girardeau, where he has been for many years a farmer; and John, the father of Alfred Ebert, the subject of this brief review.
John Ebert was born in Commerce. He worked on a farm until he was fourteen and then he was sent away to school to prepare for the ministry in the Lutheran church. His health failed and he was obliged to give up his career, so he learned the bakery business in St. Louis, and when he was about eighteen he came to Sikeston to go into business and set up his shop where the O. K. drug store now stands. His parents were with him in this ven- ture, but they presently sold out to their son and Mr. Canoy. The establishment increased its lines of wares, and grew to be one of the largest general stores in the county.
John Ebert was married to Augusta Cook of Commerce. They became the parents of four children, of whom Alfred Alonzo is the
only survivor. Two of the children died in infancy, and the third child, Arthur, lived to be only four years old. The mother died in 1883, and at her death Mr. Ebert sold out his interests in Sikeston and went to McCune, Kansas, where he engaged in the grain busi- ness.
From MeCune Mr. Ebert went to Jonesburg, Missouri, and here he met and married Miss Wardie Jones. He spent two years in the mercantile business in Jonesburg in partner- ship with a Mr. Dixey, and at the end of that period he returned to Sikeston and continued in the same line of work, the firm name being Ebert & Emery. The store was then located where the Farmers' Supply Store now stands. Some time later this store was incorporated under the name of A. J. Matthews & Com- pany, and although Mr. Ebert retained his stock in it, he gave his time to the grain busi- ness, in which he was engaged in the firm of Ebert & Matthews. This establishment later became the Greer-Ebert Milling Company, which in its turn was taken into a corpora- tion with two other mills, forming the Scott Milling Company. This is one of the large milling establishments of the state and Mr. Ebert was president of the company, holding the office until his death in 1906. Mr. Ebert was the owner of eight hundred acres of swamp land which he had bought up at differ- ent times, and at the time of his death he was living in the house he had built, which is now the residence of R. C. Matthews. Mr. Ebert was a Republican and a member of the Luth- eran church. Mrs. Ebert, who still resides in Sikeston, is a Methodist.
Alfred Alonzo Ebert was born October 27, 1879, in Sikeston. He was not yet four years old when his mother died and when his father went to Kansas the little son was left with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ebert, of Cape Girardeau. Here he attended the German Lutheran school, but when his father returned to Sikeston, Alfred came with him and continued his education in the public schools of the city and in a small college then conducted here. As his health was not robust, he spent a year in the west on a cattle ranch with a cattle outfit. After returning from the west, Alfred Ebert attended the Christian Brothers College in St. Louis and the Barnes Business College in the same city. He joined the Amateur Dramatic Club while in St. Louis and put on a play every week in Lemp's Hall. He was making a fine reputation for himself
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in the dramatic work, but he abandoned it after three years and went into farming and stock raising. He has built a fine home about a half mile west of Sikeston, and he owns ex- tensive farm lands which he rents in addition to that which he farms himself. He was the originator of the Sikeston Horse Show, which has since been incorporated into the Tri- county Fair Association, Mr. Ebert being pres- ident of the organization.
Mr. Ebert was united in marriage with Miss Verda Tuck. They have one daughter, Augusta, born November 13, 1909.
Mr. Ebert is a Republican, which was also the political faith of his father, and he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, affiliating with the Sikeston lodge, and is in all respects a deservedly pop- ular and prominent citizen, sincerely and heartily interested in all that promotes the advancement of the community.
JESSE COX SHEPPARD. Toward the end of Jefferson's administration John Sheppard, a loyal Whig of North Carolina, came to Cape Girardeau county and founded the family which has been for a century identified with the history of Southeastern Missouri. In the year 1808 conditions were primitive here be- yond anything that our country now affords in its remotest portions. Then no network of steel paths made the question of reaching the centres of population merely a matter of riding at most a day's journey to a railroad. John Sheppard was about seventeen years of age when he came to the new territory, and his was the life of a pioneer. He married Elizabeth Greene, of this county, and they be- came the parents of six children. These were : Reeder, who died in Memphis about fifteen years ago; Robert, who died unmarried; Sarah J., whose husband was a Fenimore of Cape Girardeau county; Maria, who died when a child; Mary, who ended this life in Texas as the wife of a Mr. Kemp ; and Lemuel, who became the father of Jesse Cox Sheppard of this review.
It was on the last day of October in 1821 that Lemuel Sheppard was born in what is now Cape Girardeau county. On December 9, 1850, was solemnized his marriage to Mar- tha J. Groves, who was born in Cape Girar- deau county in 1830, on March 19. Their two children are Elsie, born on her mother's birthday, in 1852. now the wife of Thomas A. Jenkins, of Oklahoma, and Jesse Cox. The
father, Lemuel Sheppard, was a farmer all his life. In 1883 he moved his family to Doniphan, Ripley county, buying property here, and he is still living here at the age of four score years, in the home of his son. His politics are those of the Democratic faction and in his religion he is a member of the Presbyterian church.
Jesse Cox Sheppard was born in that year which closed Pierce's administration, and which marked the organization of the Repub- lican party. That was a time like the present, in that the old issues upon which party lines had been drawn were giving place to newer ones, and consequently the old order was changing. But at that time men were not united by the daily newspapers, the fast mails and the telegraph, and misunderstanding grew apace with estrangement, so soon to cul- minate in the fearful strife of the Civil war. It was on April 8, 1856, that Jesse Cox Shep- pard began this life in Cape Girardeau county.
Until he was twenty-one Jesse Sheppard attended the public schools and worked on his father's farm. He then continued his school- ing in a private high school and later in the State Normal at Cape Girardeau. In pur- suance of the profession which has ever en- gaged so large a proportion of our best in- tellects he began to read law with Mr. San- ford of Cape Girardeau, a well known law- yer of that day. Mr. Sheppard finished his preparation in the State University Law School from which he was graduated in 1880 and was admitted to the bar in the same year.
Immediately after his graduation he came to Doniphan and began the practice of his profession, for a short time in partnership with T. A. Jenkins, but now, and for the most time, alone. His talents received prompt recognition, as indicated by his election to the office of prosecuting attorney in 1880, when he served four years in that capacity. He was chosen to fill the same office again in 1890 and again spent four years at that post. In 1900 he was presidential elector, chosen to cast the vote of his constituents for William Jennings Bryan, to whose party he has ever given his loyal and efficient support. When the Thirty-third circuit was created, includ- ing Butler and Ripley counties, Mr. Sheppard was appointed judge by Governor Folk on the same day, March 18, 1905. In November, 1906, he was elected judge of the circuit court for a term of six years. His career in his pro-
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fession has been one of distinction and of un- tarnished honor and he is in all respects worthy of the high esteem and affection ac- corded him by his fellow townsfolk.
Not only in politics but also in religion Judge Sheppard follows in the path of his forebears, and is a communicant of the church of the old Scots, curiously enough known as "Whigs" in the earlier days, now the schol- arly Presbyterian body. His fraternal affilia- tions include the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard have attained the dignity of being grandparents at the compar- atively early ages of fifty-three and forty- eight, respectively. The grandchild is Laura Sue Sheppard, daughter of Arnot L. and Laura Sne (Whitworth) Sheppard. Her father is the eldest child of Judge Jesse Cox and Olive A. (White) Sheppard, and was born March 16, 1886, in Doniphan. He is at present a court reporter for Ripley county and is studying law. In 1904, '05 and '06 he was a student at the State University in the literary department. Albert Sheppard, the second child of Judge and Mrs. Sheppard, was born September 7, 1896, and is still attend- ing school in Doniphan. Robert, some fifteen months younger than Albert, died in infancy.
Mrs. Sheppard is a native of St. Louis and is a daughter of Eleanor (Bnek) White. She was born August 28, 1861, and was wedded to her husband on June 3, 1885. She is no less popular in Doniphan than is her distinguished husband, to whom she is a fitting companion and helpmeet.
OSCAR ARENZ, a retired citizen of Flat River and justice of the peace, is one of the oldest residents of Southeastern Missouri He located at Bonne Terre when but three log houses marked the site of that town, and for over forty years he followed farming near there, being one of the pioneers who helped develop this part of Missouri in prosperity and wealth. As a citizen he has contributed worth and integrity to his community, and the record of his career deserves permanence.
He was born in Cass county, Illinois, Aug- ust 7, 1843. The village where he was born was Arenzville, which took its name from his father, Francis Arenz, who was one of the prominent citizens of that portion of Illinois during the first half of the last century. Francis Arenz, who was born in Germany, in 1799, came to America when a young man,
and after a brief residence in Virginia be- came associated with a Mr. Beard in the con- duct of a store at St. Louis. They afterward located on the Illinois river and started the town and trading post which has since been known as Beardstown. Mr. Arenz leaving that place bought a tract of land from the Indians in Cass county and founded what is now the prosperous village of Arenzville, where he lived until his death, in 1855, and where he was the owner of a store and mill. A Whig in politics, he took a prominent. part in the public affairs of the time. He was a member of the state legislature with Abraham Lincoln, served his locality as justice of the peace, and as a speaker and business man made his influence widely felt. Many of the German settlers of his locality came through his influence. Though reared in the Catholic church, he afterwards joined the Lutheran faith. While in Virginia he married Miss Louisa C. Boos, daughter of Jacob Boos, a farmer and land owner. She died in 1870, having been the mother of nine children, of whom Oscar was the fifth.
The latter during his boyhood attended the public schools of his native village and at the age of fifteen attended a graded school in Berlin, Illinois, for one year. He lived in Arenzville until 1861, when he joined an Illi- nois regiment and was under the command of John M. Palmer at the crucial battle of Wil- son Creek. He was in the regimental band, and after two years' service was discharged at Corinth, when he returned to Illinois. On March 15, 1869, he located as one of the pioneer settlers at Bonne Terre, Missouri, and for forty years followed the occupation of farming. In 1910, on account of his wife's health, he moved to Flat River and has since lived somewhat retired from active business. In the fall of 1910 he was elected a justice of the peace. In polities he is a Republican, and is a member of the Missionary Baptist church.
In 1864 he married Miss Lorinda Garrett, a daughter of Richard Garrett, a saddle maker of Rushville, Illinois. All of their nine children are still living, as follows: Henry R .; Edwin P .; Mary Ellen, Mrs. Wil- liam Covington ; John A .; Frank Norris; Al- bert; George; Perry, and Bertha Belle, Mrs. William Fortner.
A. F. PARKER. There used to be a preval- ent notion that the farmer spent most of his time in winter asleep, but nowadays the agri-
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culturist is very likely to follow some other vocation, or avocation, when not busy on his farm. Missouri draws some of her most suc- eessful merchants and some of her best and most brilliant professional men from the ranks of her active farmers. In Mr. Archie F. Parker, Pemiscot county has an example of a citizen who cultivates the soil and de- votes himself also to the cultivation of the minds of the young, for he is a farmer and a teacher.
Born in 1846, in Trousdale county, Tennes- see, Mr. Parker spent the early part of his life in the state where his parents, Frank and Elizabeth A. Common Parker, lived and died. His education was obtained in the district schools and in the State University at Leba- non, Tennessee. In this institution he took a course eighteen months, preparatory to enter- ing upon the profession of teaching. His first school was in Poland county, Kentucky, where he taught two terms. Mr. Parker has taught in many different places and alto- gether has given twenty years to the profes- sion. Part of this time has been spent in Pemiscot county, whither he came in 1879. He continued to farm all the while and now owns fifteen acres of Pemiscot county land.
Not only teaching, but law, too, engages Mr. Parker's attention. He practices in Portage- ville, where he was admitted to the bar in 1901. While in Union City, he studied in Mr. Joseph MeCaul's law office, and has con- tinned to pursue his legal studies ever since. He is a well known and influential member of the Democratic party of the county, of whose central committee he is a member. In 1892, he was the Democratic candidate for repre- sentative of the county, but he did not carry the election. Since this same year he has been justice of peace, and is still filling that office. IIe has also served the county as school commissioner, taking the place of J. F. Gordon, who was clerk of the circuit court.
In 1884, Mr. Parker was united in marriage to Miss Mary Suttle, of Tennessee. Three children, Engie, Anna and Lela, were the issue of this union. Mrs. Parker passed to the other life in 1902.
LEWIS F. LESIEUR was born in this county and has spent most of his life in it. He has not only grown up with the country, but has identified himself with all influences for its betterment. His father was Gustavus Adol- phus Lesieur, born in this county. His mo- ther, Emma Severain Lesieur, was a native of
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Her marriage to Gustavus Lesieur took place at Point Pleasant and it was here that Lewis Lesieur was born, December 17, 1849.
Gustavus Lesieur had a store at Point Pleasant, and his son Lewis worked in it and attended the subscription schools until he was eighteen years of age. At that time his father died and Lewis rented a farm and ran it for several years. He was married in 1868 to Julia Brookham, daughter of Harvey and Julia Christy Brookham, of this county. She lived but two years, and for the decade fol- lowing her death Mr. Lesieur spent the time alternately in Missouri and Texas, farming and working in stores.
In 1873 he went to Osceola to take charge of a store there. He managed this for a year and then went to Texas to clerk. He stayed but a few months on this trip, but when he left Missouri later in the same year, a second time, he again went to the Lone Star state and farmed there for three years. In 1876 Mr. Lesieur came back to his native state and took up agriculture here. After making one crop he clerked for three years.
Farming again claimed his attention in 1880, when he bought a place of forty acres and farmed it for four years. In 1881 he was married to Emma, his deceased wife's sister. When they sold the forty acre farm Mr. Le- sieur rented another one for two years, and then again went into mercantile work at New Madrid for Mr. Lewis, continuing in this posi- tion for two years. In 1892 he moved to his present farm of sixty-seven acres, a well im- proved place and one of the best pieces of land in this section. He raises cotton, corn and some stock.
Maggie, Mr. Lesieur's daughter by his first wife, is married to Charles Scott, a farmer of this county. One of the three children of his second marriage, Philo, is still at home. Julia is Mrs. Charles Hawkins, of this county, and Godfrey works in a store at Marston.
Mr. Lesieur is an honored member of the venerable Masonic fraternity. He has been secretary of the Point Pleasant lodge for many years and is junior warden. He and Mrs. Lesieur are members of the Methodist church, where he is an energetic worker, a steward of the church and superintendent of the Sunday school. Interested as he is in all matters pertaining to the higher life, it is not surprising that Mr. Lesieur should have spent several years serving as school director. In politics he holds with the Democratic party.
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MIKE EDWARDS. The ancestors of Mike Edwards lived in Kentucky previous to com- ing to Missouri. His father, Allen Edwards, was the son af Stephen and Drucilla Edwards, both of whom died when he was very young. Allen was brought up by his foster parents, with whom he came from Washington county, Kentucky, in 1873, being nineteen years old at the time. He never had an opportunity to attend school and for two years after he came to Missouri Allen Edwards worked by the month, receiving fourteen dollars a month as wages.
In January, 1875, he was united in marriage to Mary, daughter of Mike and Mary E. Fisher. For two years after his marriage Mr. Edwards raised crops on shares and then his father-in-law gave him forty acres of wooded land. This Mr. Edwards cleared and bought forty more acres. He still owns one hundred acres, which he farms. For a time he gave his attention to stock-raising. On March 10, 1903, he moved into town and seven years later, in the same month, his wife's death occurred. Two sons, Landon, born February 22, 1892, and Stanley, five years his junior, and one daughter, Ida, are at home. The oldest child, Inez, is the wife of P. E. Boone, and the other son, Mike, is a general farmer, working sixty acres of his father's estate.
Mike Edwards was born on the farm which he now operates in 1880. He attended the district school and until his marriage helped his father. In 1902 he married Miss Ollie Byers, born in Indiana, also the home of her parents, William H. and Mary Allen Byers. The issue of this union has been three chil- dren: Ruth, born September 22, 1905; Don- nie M .. March 6, 1907, and Harry A., August 21, 1910.
Mr. Edwards is a Democrat, as is also his father. He has served his lodge, the Wood- men of the World, as sentry.
WILLIAM H. ELLIS has lived in this county since he was six years old. He was born in Tennessee, in 1868, and grew up on his father's farm in this county, attending the subscription schools.
In 1887 Mr. Ellis was married to Miss Ora Adams, of this county. Mrs. Ellis is the daughter of Samuel Adams, and was but six- teen years old at the time of her marriage. After his marriage Mr. Ellis share-cropped for ten years and then rented for a time. At present he is again farming on shares, being a general farmer.
The oldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, Charles, is married to Lennie Burch and lives in this county. The other seven of their family live at home. These are John, Milbourn, Stanley, Hetty, Meda, May and Gertie.
Mr. Ellis is a Democrat and while not a seeker of office, has served the township as constable for six years. He has held offices in the lodges to which he belongs, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is active in the work of his church, the Baptist, in which he is a deacon and at present the clerk of the church.
WILLIAM DAVIS DEAN is a Tennesseean by birth and since 1847, the year of his nativity, he has enjoyed a variety of experiences both in the state of his birth and in Missouri. His early life was like that of most of the farmers' sons of that generation. He worked on the home place and went to school. When but sixteen he enlisted in the Confederate army and served one year in Colonel Jacob Biffle's regiment, then in the field in Tennessee.
At the close of the war Mr. Dean spent three years working by the month. Then he rented a farm and later purchased one. He owned ninety acres in Obion county. In 1903 Mr. Dean came to this county, settling first at Point Pleasant. From here he moved to the eighty-seven and a half acre place on which he now lives as a renter. While in Point Pleasant he conducted a blacksmith shop. He learned this trade in Tennessee- just picked it up-he says.
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