USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 14
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town and continued in the liquor business for over ten years. In 1888 he bought his present farm and for the past twenty years has made his home on the same. He has fol- lowed general farming, and made many im- provements on his land.
In 1867 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ruth to Miss Lucetta Hellaker, also a native of the Fatherland, coming with her family to Mine La Motte when she was a child of six. Mr. and Mrs. Ruth have been blessed with eight children, seven of whom survive to this date, 1911. Elizabeth became Mrs. Samuel Perringer, and she passed away in 1906, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Josephine Barrington, the mother of Charles Barring- ton. Henry Ruth, who married Miss Lessie Bruce and became the father of six children, is now a prosperous farmer, and lives not far from his father's place. Joseph is also en- gaged in farming, and is not far from his father, being located on the Greenville Road. He was united in marriage to Miss Mary Sunderman, and they have since been blessed with five children, Mary Ruth became the wife of Mr. James Thompson and became the mother of three fine children. She and her husband have a farm two miles west of her father's. Frank Ruth, who chose as his bride Miss Emma Thompson, resides on his father's farm. He is the father of two chil- dren : Etta and Annie, the twins and young- est girls in the family, are still at the par- ental home, as is also their brother Andrew Jr.
Politically Mr. Ruth has never wavered from his strong Republican convictions and he has had the honor to have been the first Republican for many years in the county to attain victory at an election. This was in 1896, when he was elected county judge. Al- though a few men of his party have been suc- cessful at the polls since, none had ever gained a majority for many years previously before his election twelve years ago to the position of county judge in Madison county.
Fraternally Mr. Ruth is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of the chapter at Fredericktown. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic for several years. Mrs. Ruth and the remainder of the family are members of the Catholic church.
DAVID SULLENS BROWNE, proprietor of the Browne Dry Goods Company at Flat River, is one of the most enterprising merchants
of southeastern Missouri. He has been iden- tified with this locality for the past fifteen years, and through his native ability and in- dustry has won a substantial position.
He was born in Wythe county, Virginia, October 15, 1874. His father, James E. Browne, was born in the same state in 1827, had limited schooling during his youth but educated himself so that he was prepared to teach school and also for the ministry of the Methodist church. Throughout the Civil war he served as a Virginia soldier, and is still a resident of that state, occupying a charge as minister. He married Miss Eliza- beth Lockett, a daughter of Edwin Lockett, of Virginia. She is still living, and was the mother of nine children. In politics the father was a Democrat.
Mr. D. S. Browne, who was the sixth of his parents' children, was educated in the public schools of Virginia, and at the age of nineteen began earning his own way, for the first five years being in various lines of work. He then located at Flat River and after working awhile in the mines became an employe of the E. F. Packard Store Com- pany. His six years' experience there laid the foundation for his subsequent success, which resulted in the organization of the Browne Dry Goods Company. This is one of the largest exclusive dry goods houses in southeastern Missouri, and is a monument to the business management of its owner.
Mr. Browne's politics is Democratic, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married, in 1904, Miss Elizabeth Arnoldi, a daughter of C. F. Arnoldi, who was connected with the mines at Flat River. One son has been born of their marriage, James Frederick.
CHARLES R. PRATT. The man best fitted to meet the wonderfully changed life of to-day is not a new type of man. He is a man re- splendent with the same old sterling quali- ties-clean in his individual life, great in his home life, great in his civic and patriotic life and great in his religious life. He holds true to his conscience and convictions, unswerved by praise or blame, and in every possible con- nection he manifested a deep and helpful in- verest in community affairs. Such a man is Charles R. Pratt, whose citizenship is a val- nable adiunet to Flat River, Saint Francois county, Missouri. Since the 1st of January, 1911, he has been general manager of the
DA. Browns
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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Lead Belt & Farmington Telephone Com- pany, and in that capacity has contributed materially to the growth and increased busi- ness of that concern.
A native of Macon county, Missouri, Charles R. Pratt was born on the 18th of January, 1871, and he is a son of Jesse R. Pratt, whose birth occurred on the 5th of January, 1841, in Knox county, Tennessee. The father passed his boyhood and youth on a farm and at the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army, serving during the entire period of the war as a member of Marmaduke's Brigade. After the close of the war and when peace had again been established throughout the coun- try he settled in Shelby county, Missouri, where he was identified with farming opera- tions until 1872. In the latter year he estab- lished the family home in St. Francois coun- ty, this state, and there he turned his atten- tion to the manufacture of brick, also build- ing up a large contracting business. He put up the majority of the brick buildings now standing in Farmington, Missouri. In 1909 he again directed his attention to agricult- ural pursuits and he is now engaged in that line of endeavor in Mississippi county, where he is the owner of a finely improved estate of two hundred acres of land. In the year 1867 was solemnized the marriage of Jesse R. Pratt to Miss Nannie S. Dennis, a native of Illinois. This union was prolific of seven chil- dren, four of whom are living at the present time and of whom the subject of this review was the second in order of birth. Mrs. Pratt passed to eternal rest in 1880 and three years later Mr. Pratt wedded Kate Bowyer, of Farmington. To the latter union have been born three children. In politics Mr. Pratt is aligned as a stanch supporter of the Demo- cratic party and in a fraternal way he is a valued and appreciative member of the local lodges of the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Knights of Pythias.
Charles R. Pratt, whose name forms the caption for this review, received his early educational training in the public schools of Farmington, where he also attended the Bap- tist College, in which excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1892. Subsequently he attended the Uni- versity of Kentucky, where he pursued a com- mercial course. For a period of four years Mr. Pratt was a popular and successful teacher in the Baptist College at Farming- ton, where he served in the capacity of prin-
cipal for one year. For two years he was principal of the public schools at Doe Run. In 1898 he became interested in the news- paper business at Farmington, where he be- came editor of the Saint Francois Herald, an incumbency he retained for three years, at the expiration of which he became associated with his father in the manufacture of bricks. In 1904 he came to Flat River, where he pur- chased the Lead Belt News, which he edited and published up to January 1, 1911. Dis- posing of that paper to Mr. Smith, the pres- ent editor, he became general manager of the Lead Belt & Farmington Telephone Com- pany, one of the most prosperous business concerns in this place. Mr. Pratt is an en- thusiastic politician, giving a hearty and zealous support to the Democratic party. At the present time, 1911, he is chairman of the Saint Francois, County Democratic Committee and he is likewise chairman of the Thirteenth Congressional District Demo- cratic Committee. He is ever on the qui vive to advance the best interests of the community in which he maintains his home and a more loyal or public-spirited citizen cannot be found in Flat River. In their religious faith the Pratt family are devout members of the Missionary Baptist church, in the various de- partments of whose work they are most zeal- ous factors.
On the 9th of May, 1895, Mr. Pratt was united in marriage to Miss Viola Williams, whose birth occurred in Missouri and who is a daughter of Elias and Mary Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt are the parents of four chil- dren, whose names are here entered in re- spective order of birth,-Georgia F., Glen- wood, Charles J., Jr., and Bertrand, all of whom are attending school at Flat River. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt are prominent in connection with the best social activities of Flat River, where their attractive home is widely re- nowned for its refinement and generous hos- pitality. Mr. Pratt is genial in his associa- tions, sincere in his friendship and a man of fairness and honor in all his business deal- ings. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. For the past five years he has been a member of the Flat River school board and since 1908 he has been president of the board.
BUREN DUCKWORTH is one of the retired merchants of St. Clair, and is engaged ac- tively and successfully as a lead mine pro-
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moter and is president of the Bank of St. Clair. He is an excellent and substantial business man, of the enterprising type which is aiding in the upbuilding of this part of the state and of whom is especially appro- priate representation in this volume. His talents are versatile and in no less than three distinct fields of enterprise has he made his mark for ability and initiative of a high or- der. He is loyal to this section with the loy- alty of a native son, his birth having occurred in the vicinity of St. Clair on January 27, 1857. He is a son of Josiah Duckworth, who came to the county about the year 1836. To give the life of the latter in epitome, he was a native Kentuckian, but must have moved to Virginia, for it was from the Old Domin- ion that he came to the state of Missouri. He devoted his life to farming; kept aloof from active participation in politics ; was not in the army on either side during the war between the states; and he was killed by a falling tree in September, 1881, when sixty-four years of age.
Josiah Duckworth married Elizabeth Sto- vall, who died in St. Clair in 1911, at the age of seventy-nine years. Their children were as follows: Josiah C., of Aurora, Missouri ; Buren and Webster, twin brothers. who re- side in St. Clair; Thomas P., of St. Clair; Fannie L., who married A. H. Short, of Mena, Arkansas; Theodosia, wife of J. P. Murphy, of St. Clair; Miss Mattie; and Es- tella. wife of E. W. Walker, of Rolla, Mis- souri.
Buren Duckworth passed his life upon the farm until past the age of thirty years and he has an agricultural training of the most thorough and scientific sort. His education was acquired in the country schools. In 1888 he made a radical and what proved a well- advised change by leaving the country and investing his small capital in merchandise. He opened a small store in St. Clair and for fourteen years conducted this business under his own name, the enterprise experiencing a sound and flourishing growth. At the end of the period mentioned he merged his stock with the St. Clair Mercantile Company, which he had organized. He remained finan- cially interested in this for the space of eight years and then abandoned commercial pur- suits.
For many years Mr. Duckworth has pros- pected for and developed mining properties. He opened the Merrimac lead mine and made it a salable proposition. He next de-
veloped the "Chimney" mine and also found a buyer for it. His following venture was the "Andeson," which proved so profitable that he and his associates are still operating it. The gentlemen who are associated with him are Gilbert Lay, Charles Otte and A. C. Beasley. In Greene county Mr. Duckworth opened an iron bank, which is a valuable prospect and has already showed the pres- ence of iron ore in paying quantities. He buys and ships barytes and is operating no less than three properties yielding this com- mercial stuff. The success of the several ven- tures with which he has been connected are largely to be credited to his executive ability, tireless energy, engineering skill and genius in the broad combination and concentration of applicable forces.
In 1904, the St. Clair Bank was organized by a few citizens of whom Mr. Duckworth was one and he was chosen president of the new monetary institution. For some years he has dealt extensively in railroad ties, ship- ping yearly some fifty thousand ties cut from the forests adjacent to the town.
In politics Mr. Duckworth is a Democrat, supporting with enthusiasm the men and measures presented by the party and he has himself been on the ticket for county office. In 1906 he made the race for county judge and was defeated by only fifty-six votes in a county normally Republican by something like seventeen hundred votes. He is a man of pleasing personality and plenty of enthu- siasm and has many friends.
On January 23, 1884, Mr. Duckworth mar- ried Miss Nora E. Beasley, their union being celebrated at St. Clair. She is a daughter of Alfred Beasley, a successful and extensive farmer of this locality who came here orig- inally from Virginia. The issue of their marriage is a daughter, Phoebe, wife of C. H. Sparrow, of Newark, New Jersey. Small Dorothy Sparrow, four years of age, entitles the subject to the pleasant distinction of grandfather.
J. A. BERRY. Shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war Hyram Berry was born in North Carolina and in 1818, at the age of twenty-three, he came to Bollinger county with his wife. Amelia, and settled in Glen Allen, where his descendants have been en- gaged in farming and mercantile business ever since. He himself lived until 1889, when he died at the advanced age of one hundred and four. His son, William Berry, was the
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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
father of the subject of this sketch, and was a prosperous merchant farmer who spent his life in the county.
J. A. Berry was born on a farm three miles north of Marble Hill in 1869. Until sixteen he attended school and worked on the farm and then went into his father's store at Glen Allen. Here he has been ever since and is now the sole owner of the large establishment. He and his brother came into possession of the business in 1890 and eleven years later he bought his brother's interest. While in part- nership with his brother, J. A. Berry was postmaster at Glen Allen. In addition to his mercantile business he owns a farm near Glen Allen and is president of the People's Telephone Company at Lutesville.
Mr. Berry's fraternal affiliations include the venerable Masonic order, the Odd Fcl- lows, the Modern Woodmen and the Macca- bees lodges. He is a Democrat in politics, but does not devote himself to politics even as a side-line of business.
Mrs. Berry is also a native of Missouri. Before her marriage to J. A. Berry in 1902 she was Miss Emma C. MeMinn. Her par- ents, A. C. and Catherine MeMinn, are also Missourians born. A family of three children make up the home circle of Mr. and Mrs. Berry, two sons and one daughter. They are William M., Roy A., and Ruth C. Berry, aged six. four and three, respectively.
SAMUEL ANDY REPPY. Few mortals are privileged to live lives of such interest, varied usefulness and distinction as S. A. Reppy, now an attorney-at-law and real estate dealer in De Soto. Mr. Reppy is one of eight chil- dren still surviving of the ten born to Hamil- ton Smith and Sarah (Dunn) Reppy, pio- neers of Jefferson county, before there was any town of De Soto. Of these six were girls, now all married; Susan, to William Butler; Jane, to B. F. Butler; Nancy, to John Wil- cox; Caroline is Mrs. Wash Butler; Eliza- beth, Mrs. T. W. McMullen, and Nora is Mrs. J. H. Gardener. The two sons are Samuel A. and William G. Reppy.
H. S. Reppy, father of this family was a Democrat in polities, but he voted for Lin- coln. He was born in St. Charles, Septem- ber 28, 1810. Shortly after his birth his par- ents moved to Be'le Fountain, Washington county, to engage n mining, but both father and mother died very shortly after coming to the new home and the boy was brought up by Mr. Hart, a distiller by trade. The orphan
supported himself by working for different people and became first owner of a farm and then the first merchant of De Soto. He died in this city in 1874 and was buried on his sixty-fourth birthday.
Samuel A. Reppy, eldest son of H. S., was born May 24, 1837, two miles southwest of De Soto, and remained on the farm until the railroad was built in 1857, when he went into mercantile business. He had a grocery store in De Soto, but when the gold rush to Colo- rado swept over the country in 1861, he left De Soto in an ox-cart and made the journey across the plains to the new El Dorado. His stay was ended by an accident which crip- pled him and five months after leaving De Soto he came back and resumed business in that place.
Mr. Reppy's public career began in March, 1862, when he was elected county clerk. He served afterwards as recorder of deeds and as superintendent of public instruction in Jefferson county, where he was the first Re- publican to hold office. He remained at Hillsboro until 1873, when he went to Little Rock, Arkansas. After a month's residence in that city he moved to Prescott, in the same state, and spent fourteen years there as one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He was well known in the political circle of Prescott, where he served both as mayor of the city and as associate justice of the county court, and he counted among his intimate friends the Governors Gus and Rufus Gar- land, and Senator J. K. Jones.
Mr. Reppy returned to Jefferson county in 1889 and bought his old homestead. He spent several years on the old place and then came again to De Soto, where his father was once the only man in business in the town. Since his return to De Soto, Mr. Reppy has been engaged in law and in real estate business. He has been twice elected city attorney, in recognition of his unusual ability in the legal profession, to which he was formally ad- mitted in 1867.
Seven children of Rachael P. (Whitehead) and Samuel A. Reppy are still living. These are Jolin H., Samuel Allison, Robert Edgar, and Henry T. Reppy; and Mrs. Theo Wal- ther (Edith Reppy) ; Rachel E., wife of Dr. Donnell; and Mrs. Roger Wilcox, nee Mabel Reppy. The marriage of which these chil- dren are the issue took place in 1860, on the twelfth of February. The minister who per- formed the ceremony was Reverend Samuel
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Hoffman, a member of the legislature with Abraham Lincoln.
Since 1865 Mr. Reppy has held member- ship in the Masonic lodge and Eastern Star. He is one of the most devoted workers in the Methodist church, where he has served as Sunday-school superintendent for over thirty- five years. Mr. Reppy killed his first deer, turkey and squirrel where the town of De Soto now stands, and was the first justice of the peace elected in De Soto, in 1860.
GEORGE O. HAMMERSLEY. Not only to those interested in commercial lines, but also to the professional man of ability, Dunklin county offers scope for intelligent effort and pecu- niary reward for industry and talent. A signal instance of such a career is that of George O. Hammersley. In 1900, Dr. Ham- mersley was graduated from the Memphis Hospital and Medical College and the same year came to Campbell. He had previously lived in an Illinois town of a population of 750. In 1889 his marriage to Miss Artie Hill of Norris City, Illinois, took place. The fam- ily of the bride is one of the oldest and best known in that section of the country.
When Dr. Hammersley came to Campbell he began at once to practice medicine. In 1906, he started a drug store and ran it for four years, and he built up a thriving trade in that time but sold it out because his prac- tice required all his time. Dr. Hammersley, improves every opportunity to keep abreast of the progress in medical science. He holds membership in the County, the State and the National Medical Associations and in the Tri- State Association. This includes Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee. The Doctor spent two years in Tennessee from 1901 to 1902.
Dr. Hammersley has bought and sold a great deal of real estate during the time he has been here and his holdings in that line are extensive and valuable. He owns one of the best residences in Campbell, a farm of eighty acres in Ripley county and one of twice that extent in Howell county. All this he has achieved in a little more than a decade by his own efforts.
Dr. Hammersley and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. They have a family of three children all at home. These are Hallie, Lney and Flov. The doctor is one of the popular citizens of Camp- bell and holds membership in several lodges. He is an F. and A. M. of Campbell, belonging to the council at Campbell, chapter, Kennett.
The Odd Fellows and the Knigths of Pythias also count him in their fraternity and he is an Elk in the Caruthersville lodge.
CHARLES E. PORTER. Dunklin county is doubly proud of her self-made men; proud first of possessing citizens of the calibre of men who can carve fortune from circum- stances and proud of being a place of oppor- tunity for ambitious workers. Charles E. Porter's career is in many respects a typical one. His history is that of a prosperous busi- ness man who began with nothing.
Illinois is the place of Mr. Porter's birth, the year being 1875. His parents moved to Kentucky when he was only two years old and remained in Livingston county, that state, for ten years. In 1877 the Porter fam- ily moved to Campbell and settled on a farm. Here Mr. Porter went to school a little while and then stayed at home until he went to work on a farm near town and continued to live in the country working out and renting until 1901.
In the meantime Mr. Porter had married a young lady whom he had known as a boy in Kentucky. This was Miss Rilous Vaughn who became Mrs. Porter in 1895, on November 22. When they had been married six years, Mr. Porter moved into Campbell bringing with him his wife and two children. Owen and Russell. His first venture was a restaurant in a small store. Thrift and business sagacity made the business successful and he has stead- ily forged ahead in the commercial world and branched out into other lines of trade. His mercantile stock gradually increased and fin- ally he decided to dispose of his restaurant and devote all his time to the dealing in mer- chandise. Upon selling out his restaurant, Mr. Porter consolidated with the MeCutchen Mercantile Company and was associated with that organization for seven years. During that time he was one of the directors of the stock company.
In 1909, the Porter-Benson Mercantile Com- pany was organized and Mr. Porter was made president and general manager of the concern. The two years of its existence have shown the wisdom of having so experienced and gifted a business man at the helm. The stock has been increased and now the store carries a line of dry-goods, groceries, wagons and carriages.
In city real estate, Mr. Porter owns several business lots and a residence which is one of the beautiful places of the city. It is situated
AJones
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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
in the midst of a natural forest seven acres in extent and is spacious and handsome grounds are no less the pride of the city than of its owner.
Mr. Porter is a Republican in political mat- ters. He is well known in the lodges of Campbell where he holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. His church is the Baptist. Besides his two sons, mentioned above, Mr. Porter has four daughters, La Vesta, Ola, Marguerite and Marie. Mr. and Mrs. Porter have all their children still at home. Mr. Porter's mother died when he was twelve years old, but his father is still living on his farm near Campbell and has married a second time.
When it is considered that Mr. Porter has built up such a business and acquired his val- uable property all unaided in about twelve years the inevitable conclusion is that a good man has been doing good work in a good territory.
ROBERT HENRY JONES. In considering the life of a man, the first thing we inquire is what he has done, and we judge of a man by his achievements. We want to know the mistakes he has made and the experience he gained from those mistakes. We want to know the efforts that have been put for- ward for betterment. We guess the number of times Opportunity knocked at the door and we wonder if he opened it or if he was busily engaged with Neglect. In short we would know if the man has made a success or not. In the case of Robert Henry Jones, late of Kennett, Missouri, the question can most decidedly he answered in the affirma- tive, as a short history of his career will very plainly show.
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