USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 17
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H. T. O'KELLEY, M. D., during the short time he has been identified with the medical profession in Patton, Missouri, has already given evidence of possessing abilities and per- sonal traits which cannot fail to achieve suc-
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cess. The name of O'Kelley has been prom- inent in southeastern Missouri for almost half a century, and the family has resided in the United States for six generations. During the years which have elapsed since the first O'Kelley came to America, his descendants have been identified with the military, relig- ions, agricultural, political, commercial and professional life of the states in which they have severally made their homes. The O'Kel- leys have at all times been characterized by their high sense of honor, their valor and their efficient performance of any duties with which they were entrusted. Dr. H. T. O'Kelley, whose name initiates this sketch, and a review of whose career thus far follows, has done honor to the fair name he bears.
The founder of the American branch of the O'Kelley family was James, who immi- grated from Ireland at an early date and settled in Virginia. He is distinguished as having been the first elder of the Methodist Episcopal church who was ordained in the United States.
Benjamin, the only son of Rev. James O'Kelley, passed his entire life in North Car- olina, with the exception of the seven years during which he served in the Revolutionary war. On leaving the army he married Mary Williams and became the fatber of five sons and four daughters, the sons being: Solo- mon, Frank, Nimrod, Charles and Benja- min.
Frank O'Kelley married Nancy Fain, a young lady of Irish descent, who bore him six sons,-T. K., Asberry, Joseph, William, James and Charles. In 1837 the family moved to Tennessee; twenty years later they migrated to Arkansas and in 1864, during the progress of the Civil war, came to Mis- souri, where they settled in Bollinger county.
T. K. O'Kelley, the eldest son of Frank, was born October 20, 1833, in North Caro- lina, and after concluding his preliminary educational training in the public schools he entered Barrett College, in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee, which he attended two years, and was graduated from this Christian college in the class of 1856. He forthwith commenced to teach and also to study medicine, having determined to become a physician. In 1857, on July 14, he married M. A. Capehart, daughter of Hugh Cape- hart, of South Carolina. In 1859 he mi- grated to northwest Arkansas. After the Civil war began he spent considerable of his time fighting bushwhackers, and, loyal to
the Union, in March, 1864, he enlisted in the Second Arkansas Cavalry, in which regi- ment he served until the close of the war. On his return to the life of a civilian he lo- cated in Patton, Missouri, in September, 1865; continued his interrupted medical prac- tice, and has since that date remained there, where he has been known as a successful physician. He is the oldest medical practi- tioner in Bollinger county. He has not, how- ever, confined his attentions entirely to his professional work, but has superintended the management of his property. At one time he owned one thousand acres of land, which he divided between his children, retaining for himself a farm of one hundred and sixty acres situated near Patton; he also has con- Dr. siderable property in the town itself. and Mrs. T. K. O'Kelley reared four chil- dren, of whom we make note as follows :- Harry was born February 4, 1859, in Ten- nessee, and is now a physician residing at Porterville, New Madrid county, Missouri, He had four children .- Lena May (Mrs. Wil- son), mother of Herbert; Fannie (Mrs. Reeves), who has one son, William; Juanita; and Flint. The second son of Dr. T. K. O'Kelley is Zachariah A. He married Rosa A. Heitman, who bore five children,-Emma, wife of J. V. Knowles and mother of Irene, Rosa and Thomas; Henry T., whose biog- raphy is portrayed in this sketch; D. G., a physician; Mattie, and Hattie. Frank M., the third son, also had five children,- Thomas, Anna, Elsie, Franklin and Dorothy. The only sister of these three brothers was Mattie M., who married Dr. Pressnell, be- came the mother of two sons, Charles and Pinckney, and is now dead. Dr. T. K. O'Kel- ley has ever retained an interest in his com- panions at arms, evincing same by his active connection with the post of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he holds member- ship; in fraternal connection he is also af- filiated with the Masonic order, being a mem- ber of the Blue Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; his religious sympathies have remained constant to the faith in which he was trained-the belief of his forefather, James, the first ordained elder above men- tioned, and the Doctor holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Zacharialı A. O'Kelley has been engaged in agricultural pursuits since he first com- menced his independent career, and is now residing with his wife on his farm at Patton. He prospered and was enabled to give his
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. children the best of educational advantages, the two sons both having entered the medical profession.
Having traced the O'Kelley genealogy down from its American founder up to the present day, a few words in regard to Dr. H. T. O'Kelley follow. Born on his father's farm near Patton, Missouri, June 20, 1885, when he had attained the proper age he en- tered the public school at Patton; later studied at the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, in 1905 and 1906, then pursued a course of study at the Will Mayfield Col- lege at Marble Hill and subsequently matric- ulated at the Barnes Medical University at St. Louis, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1910. Having thus obtained his M. D. degree he began to prac- tice medicine at Lounds, Missouri, where he remained until July, 1911, at which time he removed to Patton and entered the office of his grandfather, Dr. T. K. O'Kelley.
The year in which Dr. O'Kelley was grad- uated from college was also memorable as being the one in which he married Miss Ora Conrad, daughter of Daniel and Eva (Stat- ler) Conrad, whose biography appears else- where in this book. Dr. and Mrs. O'Kelley have one son, T. K. O'Kelley, Jr., born May 17, 1911. The Doctor is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and with the Tribe of Ben Hur.
C. S. WILLIAMS, M. D., one of the pro- prietors of the Hornersville Drug Company, until recent years was prominently active in the profession of medicine in Southeast Mis- souri, and has had a long and full career both professionally and in business.
A native of Carroll county, Tennessee, where he was born February 10, 1853, he spent his youth in moderate circumstances and had to work his way to pay part of his tuition for his professional education. Dr. Williams is a graduate of the medical depart- ment of the University of Nashville, where he took the three years' course and was grad- uated valedictorian in a class of one hundred and ninety. He was in debt when he finished, and all his subsequent success has been the result of talent and industry in one who be- gan life a poor country boy.
For the first four years he was engaged in practice in Tennessee and then for five years practiced in Illinois. In October, 1885, he located in Dunklin county, at a time when this country was new, and he was a physician
among the residents of that time until 1889. He then moved to Greenway, Arkansas, where he had an excellent practice for twelve years. Returning to Dunklin county in 1901, he quickly built up a large practice, but re- signed it after two years and the last eight years has been engaged in the drug business as his principal activity. He and Drew Var- bell began a partnership in May, 1909, last- ing two years, and then he and Dr. Hill formed the partnership known as Williams & Hill.
Dr. Williams is a member of the Dunklin County Medical Society. Fraternally he has been a member of the Masonic order since 1876, and is actively affiliated with the Blue Lodge and the Royal Arch Chapter, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. His church is the Methodist, South, in which he took an active part for a number of years.
He was married in Tennessee, February 14, 1872, to Miss M. E. Swift .. They are the parents of three children : Mrs. J. II. Hardin, of Hornersville; Glen, who is employed in the drug store; and Lillian, who married Curt Burns.
W. T. GAY. The biography of W. T. Gay, senior partner of the firm Gay & Schwab, blacksmiths and wagon-makers, is one of those inspiring narratives of the tri- umph of industry and skill in which every American feels a sort of personal pride.
Mr. Gay was born in Devonshire, England, in 1847, on December 24. Three years later his parents, W. T. and Selina (Downey) Gay, came to America and located in Ohio. They remained in that state for ten years, then, in 1860, they moved to St. Francois county, Missouri. They resided mainly there, but spent some time in Iron county. Four of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Gay are still living. These are John Gay, of Flat River, Missouri; Mrs. Robert Tetley of Farmington, Missouri, a widow; Mrs. John Tetley, also a widow, who lives on a farm in St. Francois county, and W. T. Gay, the subject of the present sketch. The father and mother died within two years of each other, the father in 1884. while on a visit to one of his sons in Iron county, and the mother soon afterward. Both were members of the Episcopal church. Two of their chil- dren, a boy and girl, aged respectively six and seven years. died at the same time of typhoid fever and are buried together in Ohio. W. T. Gay was reared in St. Francois and
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Iron counties. His educational advantages were limited, but he had the advantage of training under his father, who was a skilled workinan in the blacksmith and wagon trade. W. T. and his brother Samuel were associated with their father, and later the two brothers conducted the business until Samuel's death, a period of over twenty years. They had no capital to start with, and Mr. Gay's remark- able success has been due solely to his own tireless energy and sound judgment.
Mr. Gay has had different partners in his business. For a time one of his nephews was with him and for some years he was alone. Then the present firm was established. Gay & Schwab are prepared to handle all kinds of work and employ five assistants, all but one of whom are skilled mechanics and this is but one of Mr. Gay's successful enterprises. A list of his activities makes one think of Henry Ward Beecher's advice to the men who questioned him as to whether he should put "another iron in the fire." "Put them all in," answered Beecher, "and the shovel and tongs."
Mr. Gay is a stockholder in the Bank of Ironton, of which he has been president since its organization in April, 1905. The other officers are R. E. Rudy, vice-president, one of Iron county's substantial farmers; E. L. Cook, cashier; and O. G. Schepman, assistant cashier. Besides these gentlemen, the board of directors includes Nicholas Allgier and J. C. Paullus. The bank has a capital of fif- teen thousand dollars, and a surplus of seven thousand five hundred dollars. The hand- some bank building erected by the institu- tion is one evidence of the success of the un- dertaking.
Mr. Gay is also in mercantile business, of the firm Gay & Kindell, Mr. Fred Kindell be- ing partner and his son, Fred Kindell, Jr., being manager. Four clerks are employed in the large store near the bank. Another of Mr. Gay's interests is the Clark & Gay Man- ufacturing Company, of Little Rock, Arkan- sas. He is a director and the vice president of this concern, of which he was president for some years after its establishment in 1905. The plant is a hub factory manufacturing all kinds of hubs, spokes, staves and wood-work for vehicles. The business is capitalized at eighty thousand dollars and employs seventy men. Dr. R. W. Gay, of Ironton, is president of the factory board.
Besides his mercantile, manufacturing, banking and mechanical enterprises Mr. Gay
has the distinction, which he shares with his son-in-law and junior partner, Mr. A. L. Schwab, of owning the finest farms in Iron county. These are located one and one half miles northwest of Ironton; they embrace four hundred and forty acres of well im- proved, fenced land; fine barns and two good houses.
A man of such extensive and varied busi- ness responsibilities might be expected to have no time for active part in politics, but Mr. Gay is an exception. He is one of the few Republicans to receive political honors. He served eight years as mayor of Ironton, then resigned that office to accept that of representative, serving one term. In the fall of 1910 he was elected county judge and is still serving in that capacity.
Mrs. Gay was Miss Lucy Logan, daughter of Judge Logan, a prominent citizen of Iron- ton. He was a native of Virginia, but came to Missouri at an early age and became one of her most esteemed citizens. He was a prominent merchant of Ironton, a member of the legislature and also judge of Iron county. He died in 1886, at an advanced age, mourned by the whole community. His daughter grew up in Iron county and became Mrs. W. T. Gay in 1871. Mrs. A. L. Schwab is the only child of their marriage, but two nieces of Mrs. Gay were brought up in the Gay home. These were Georgia and Bell Muffley, of whom one, Miss Bell is now em- ployed in Mr. Gay's store. Georgia became the wife of Dr. Meredith, of St. Louis, and died at the age of twenty-eight.
Mrs. Gay is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Gay's social affiliations include the Masonic order, in which he has taken the R. A. M. degrees, and the Knights of Pythias. He is rightly regarded as one of the county's best rounded men of affairs and his popu- larity is as unquestioned as his business success.
THOMAS J. RIGDON, M. D. In all Kennett, indeed in all Dunklin county, there is no man in any walk of life who is more re- spected and loved than Dr. Rigdon. He is loved by old and young, by rich and poor alike. His whole life has been spent in seek- ing to benefit others. His one ambition has been and still is to serve his fellow men. His maxim is to look up, not down, to look out, not in, but to lend a hand. His knowl- edge of human nature has taught him to look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in
Thomas Rigon Mr.
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anger. From the time he was a mere lad he has been possessed of great determination, balanced by good, common sense. He has made his own way in the world and knows how to appreciate the difficulties of a man struggling to gain a livelihood or the student who is trying to gain an education. Although he is very positive in his views, he is most charitable towards the opinions of others and does not insist that it is necessary to think his thoughts in order to be right. In short, he is a man whom to see is to love and admire.
He was born near Vandalia in Fayette county, Illinois, September 7, 1867. His father was Thomas Rigdon, a native of Mount Vernon, Ohio. In 1837 he came to Illinois and in 1887 to Bollinger county, Mis- souri, farming in both states. He married Electa E. Nichols (born in Indiana), after he came to Illinois, his first wife having died. She is still living at Lutesville, Missouri, where she is the proprietor of the Com- mercial Hotel. He died in Bollinger county at the age of seventy-four, while living in Illinois. He had been active in politics and was at one time a candidate for sheriff on the Democratic ticket. He was defeated by one vote. He was deputy sheriff until his chief died. He was superintendent of the county poor farm from 1879 until 1885, dur- ing which time he made wonderful improve- ments in the farm. He was often a delegate to the Democratic conventions, where he always made a stand for the fair thing. He was the second cousin of Sidney Rigdon, the noted leader of the Mormons and one of the first officers of the church. About 1836, when Thomas was twelve or thirteen years old, he remembers that on one occasion this same Sidney Rigdon came to visit them at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and he never forgot the con- versations that took place between his father and Sidney, often lasting all night and re- lating to the founding of the Mormon church (to which he was bitterly opposed), then at Kirtland, Ohio, and its proposed re- moval to Missouri. The removal, in fact, took place to Independence, Missouri, some two years later. In the conversation and arguments Sidney assured his cousin that he was the real founder of the church and the author of the mysterious stone plates dug up and deciphered by Joseph Smith. Sidney Rigdon had been a minister of the Christian church, a convert of Alexander Campbell, and had conceived the Mormon church as a
means of personal advancement and to make money. Thomas Rigdon condemned him in unmeasured terms and tried to dissuade him from his course.
Thomas J. Rigdon spent the first twenty years of his life on his father's farm in Illi- nois, attending the country schools in his neighborhood. When he was twenty he went with his parents to Bollinger county, Mis- souri, where they moved onto another farm. HIe then began to teach, believing that that was the line of work to which he was best adapted. While he was teaching he took a two years' course at the State Normal School ; he taught four years in Bollinger county, one in Cape Girardeau county, coming on January 1, 1893, to Dunklin county, where he taught in 1894 and 1895. By this time he had decided that he did not care to teach any longer and he bought a drug store in Kennett, but his abilities did not lie in the commercial direction and he lost his stock in six months by fire. He took his first year's course in medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1894, and after he had to give up his drug store he resumed his study of medicine, but he had to teach at the same time in order to pay for his bread and butter. In 1898 he took the second year's course, graduating in 1900, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and a debt of three hundred dollars. He be- gan to practice in Kennett, succeeding Dr. J. W. Back, who was his preceptor in the study of medicine and who died in August, 1900. It so happened that he had a good practice from the very start and he has de- voted himself wholly to his work. He is a member of the County Medical Society, of the Southeastern Missouri Medical Society and of the Missouri State Medical Associa- tion. He is an ex-president of the county society and is its present secretary. In 1906 he was elected county coroner and has held this office ever since. He was also county physician in 1909 and 1910, his duties being to attend the sick at the poor farm and jail and examine the insane, etc.
On November 17, 1901, the Doctor married Mary Ellen King Back, widow of the late Doctor Back mentioned above, thus succeed- ing the old doctor in his practice and in the affections of his widow. Mary Ellen King was born in Bollinger county and came to Kennett with her husband in 1892, he re- maining in practice in Kennett until he died. She had two children, Cora Back, who is now the wife of S. G. Fisher, assistant cashier of
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the Cotton Exchange Bank, and Frank Back, a medical student at Barnes Medical College, St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Rigdon has no chil- dren.
In addition to the offices mentioned above, Dr. Rigdon is also local registrar of vital statistics for Kennett under the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the state of Missouri. He owns two hundred acres of land in Dunklin county, which he took in the wild state and he is gradually clearing it and bringing it into a state of cultivation. He is a stock- holder and director of the Cotton Exchange Bank and has been connected with it in this manner from its start. He is also a stock- holder in the Peoples Bank of Holcomb, Missouri. He has always been active in poli- tics, as delegate to state conventions, etc. He is a member of three fraternal orders, the Masons, Ben Hur and the Woodmen of the World. He has been an elder in the Christian church of Kennett for the past five or six years. Indeed, there seems to be no end to the different activities with which he is connected. He was so eminently success- ful as a teacher that it seemed as if the pedagogical field was the one where he would make the greatest success, but surely he is in the right place now, where as physician, as politician, as leader of the church, as con- nected with banks, he fulfils each office as if that and that alone were the work to which he is most adapted. He has a standing in the county that is second to none.
ROBERT GEORGE RAMSEY, justice of the peace at Flat River and for many years a prominent citizen of this vicinity, was born in Clay county, Kentucky, May 10, 1846. Since an early age his life has been devoted to use- ful activities, and besides the ordinary voca- tions and responsibilities of citizenship he has a military record gained during the Civil war, before he had reached his majority.
His father, John Ramsey, was born in North Carolina, and died in 1874, having followed the occupation of farming throughout his ac- tive career. He was a Republican and at- tended the Baptist church. He married Char- lotte Hubbard, of North Carolina, and they were parents of seven children, Robert G. be- ing the fifth.
The latter had limited schooling while he was a hoy but acquired the habits of industry on the farm where he grew up. When he was sixteen years old he enlisted in the Federal army and saw four years' service under the
Union flag. He was a corporal in the Eighth Kentucky Infantry and later re-enlisted in the Fourth Kentucky.
After his return from the war he and a cousin engaged in farming for a time, and while a resident of Kentucky he was quite ac- tively identified with the ministry of the Mis- sionary Baptist church, under which denomi- nation he preached in country churches. Mr. Ramsey has been a resident of Missouri since 1893, and has been engaged in the grocery and insurance business with his son. The ministry of his church has also occupied some of his time. During the period of Flat River's in- corporation as a town he served three years in the office of police judge, and since then has been honored with the duties of justice of the peace. Though his head is white with the passage of years, Judge Ramsey is still an active citizen and holds an honored place in his community. He is a stalwart supporter of the Republican party, and fraternally is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On August 1, 1866, he was married to Miss Harriet Jane Holcomb, of Jackson county, Kentucky. Her father, Abner Holcomb, was a substantial farmer of that locality. Nine children have been born of their marriage: Charlotte B., Mrs. Chris Engleman; Mary Jane, Mrs. A. B. Reynolds; Martha J., Mrs. Wyle Murrell; Laura D., Mrs. Edward Dal- ton ; Amanda, Mrs. James Coombs; Susan, de- ceased ; Charles Crittenden ; Squire Harvey ; John Millard.
SHERWOOD T. PETER, D. D. S., is favorably and widely known as a successful stockgrower and dealer of St. Clair, in which county his citizenship has long been valued. He is all but a native of Missouri, having come to the commonwealth as a boy of six years. He was born in Boyle county, Kentucky, August 30, 1861. His ancestors were among the first set- tlers of that section of the Blue Grass state and acquired some fame as jack and mule raisers, and what is even more important as good and useful citizens. Thus it will be seen that the Peter family has been engaged in the stock raising business for a good many generations, and they have maintained the highest ideals in their particular field. Dr. Peter's father, J. C. Peter, of St. Joe, Mis- souri, is engaged in the stock business and he acquired his training in this sphere of en- deavor from his father while living in Boyle county. There he was born in the '30s of the
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nineteenth century and there he founded an independent household by his marriage to Eliza McDonald, a lady of Scotch extraction. Of the eight children of their union Dr. Sher- wood is the eldest and seven of the number survive.
To the public schools of Missouri is Dr. Peter indebted for his general education, which was completed in Saint Joe, where his parents removed when he was a youth. Be- coming interested in dentistry he began its study in Syracuse, Nebraska, but finished his course in the Western Dental College of Kan- sas City, from which he was graduated in 1892. After a few months residence and pro- fessional work in St. Louis the Doctor came to St. Clair and was a resident dentist there until 1897, when he followed the westward trend of settlement and located at Roswell, New Mexico. He resumed his profession there and, in fact, continued it until his real estate interests demanded his close attention and he found it necessary to abandon the profes- sional field in order to become a successful agriculturist and stockman. While in New Mexico he acquired considerable property in- terests, of which at an opportune moment he disposed at a distinct advantage, and in 1909 he returned to Missouri and invested in farm lands near the St. Louis markets and among . the friends and associates of himself and wife in the earlier days.
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