USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 2
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Mr. Cooper is distinguished for an un- blemished record as a man and a citizen, and in mark of the strong hold he has gained upon the esteem of the community was his election to the lower house of the Missouri state legislature. He was elected in 1900 and reelected in 1902, and Bollinger county was well represented during that time. He advocates the policies and principles of the Republican party, having loyally supported them since his earliest voting days.
Mr. Cooper laid the foundation of an ideally happy marriage when, in 1871, Miss Sarah E. Myers, daughter of Ephraim and Senia (Lyrley) Myers, natives of Missouri and Illinois, respectively, became his wife. They have a family of seven children, three being sons and four daughters. Mary, born in 1871, married Jacob Hammock; Charles Monroe was born in 1873; Theodosia Isabel, born in 1875, is the wife of Charles Deck; Levi Frank, born in 1877, married Isadora MeKelvy; T. Andrew was born in 1884; Rosa, born in 1886, is the wife of George Smith; Eva Josephine, born in 1888, married J. E. Haynes.
Mr. Cooper is a member of the Masonic order and exemplifies in his own living its ideas of moral and social justice and broth- erly love. He is affiliated with the General Baptist church, and he has been a minister of this denomination for more than thirty years past.
DAVID HUDDLESTON MOORE is proud to con- sider himself a farmer, and it is such men as he that elevate the farming profession. He possesses many natural abilities and he has cultivated each one most carefully, so that to-day there is no man in the county who is more universally respected. He has done much for the county and in particular for his own township. He is not one of the men who believe that any fool can farm; he knows that it takes brains to get out of the soil all that is possible. He has educated himself by study and reading very largely since he left school, realizing that knowledge is the most perma- nent capital a man can have. It is some- thing that is useful to him in any walk of life. not only helping him to earn dollars and cents, but giving him the satisfaction which comes from simply knowing things. There are men who are ignorant and do not know it ; they have a contempt for education. Such men are hopeless and it is no use trying to do anything with them. There are others who know little and are ashamed of it, but they have not enough get-up about them to change affairs. There are others who, like Mr. Moore, have lost no opportunities to ac- quire knowledge as they went along through life. Such men are bound to succeed, as has Mr. Moore.
David Huddleston Moore was born at West Prairie. Dunklin county. Missouri, July 10. 1832. He is the son of Howard and Tabitha (Reid) Moore, both of whom were born in
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Virginia, where they were educated and mar- ried. For a few years after their marriage they lived in Virginia, coming to Missouri in 1830. After spending a year in Grand Prai- rie they came to West Prairie, settling near to the place that is now called Kennett. Mr. Moore bought the place from the old Indian chief, Chille-de-Kaw, and lived in his house, which stood about a quarter of a mile east of the Frisco depot. The old chief stayed about for two or three years, which naturally led to there being many Indians in the neighbor- hood. They lived in houses made of peeled cypress bark, and roofs made of bark and the walls built sloping. Mr. Moore finally entered his land for the fort, going to Jack- son to the land office. He died on this same farm in 1863, when more than sixty years old, his wife having died in 1861. They had eight children, of whom only one is living now. The eldest son, Jesse Pulaski, died in Dunklin county at the age of fifty. William Sexton died in Dunklin county also at the age of fifty. John died in Dunklin county when he was seventy years old. He served as consta- ble for several years. Martha Elizabeth Jane married Daniel J. Owens and died in Dunk- lin county. Susan Claxton married Thomas Varner and died in Arkansas. Mary married Anderson Shepard and died in Dunklin county. All of the sons were farmers.
David is the only surviving son of his par- ents. He was the second white child who was born in Dunklin county and as such he was awarded premiums at fairs. The first white child born in the county was Thomas Niel. who is now dead. David has a vivid recollee- tion of the Indian squaws who used to visit his mother when he was a child. They wore nose rings and tremendous ear bobs; their faces were covered with paint and altogether they presented such a frightful aspect that David was terrified. His father used to tell stories about the Indians, and in particular David remembers as if it were yesterday, the story of one big Indian who would tell in the morning the game he would kill that day and when night came he would always produce the game indicated. The men of his tribe be- gan to suspect that he was possessed of a devil or that he exercised witchcraft. They put him on trial. convicted him and he was executed in the following way-twelve men were selected. each with a gun in his hand, six of which were loaded and six not. the owners of the guns not knowing themselves whether the guns they held were the loaded ones or
not. The twelve men all pulled the triggers at once on a given signal, while the poor In- dian ran to escape if he could. Naturally no escape was possible; he fell dead, no one knowing whose shot had killed him. His body was not permitted to be touched, but lay where it fell until it rotted and was eaten by worms. David's father saw the body until it was entirely obliterated. Thus David's childhood was passed in the midst of scenes that he has never forgotten. He went to the school in the neighborhood and then helped his father on the farm. When he was twen- ty-one years old he left the home farm and bought some land a mile and a half north- east of Kennett, paying a dollar and a quar- ter an acre for the wild land. He put one hundred and sixty acres under cultivation and forty-one years later he sold it at twenty dollars an acre. It is now one of the best farms in the county, all tillable land. Some time after he had made the purchase of this land he bought six hundred acres of land on the two mile island, paying five dollars an acre. Of this he has put two hundred and forty acres under cultivation and has sold half of his first holdings of six hundred acres. Of the two hundred and forty acres which he retained, his sons are on a part and he has the rest for himself. He has thus placed about four hundred acres of the southeastern Missouri soil under cultivation. He is now no longer actively engaged in the management of his land, but lives a retired life at Kennett. For many years he operated cotton gins and him- self built one in Kennett. He also operated saw mills very extensively. He was a nat- ural mechanic and if he had chosen anything in that line as his life work he would have made as decided a success as he has as a enl- tivator of the land. It was his pleasure to set up his own machinery. At one time he was asked by W. F. Shelton to go to St. Louis and select an engine for him, at which time he gave the maker of engines a few ideas that were entirely new to them and were very val- nable hints in regard to engines and boilers. At one time the owner of a new engine said that his engine must go back to the factory. as it would not operate. Mr. Moore looked it over and in a few minutes had located the trouble and had the engine in shape for op- erating. David was always very devoted to his father and wished to do as the old man would have him, but at the same time he felt that he must act according to his conscience. His father was a secessionist, but David stood
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by the side of his father and cast his vote for the Union. He was not prepared to go as far as to believe iu freeing the slaves, how- ever, at that time. His father had owned slaves and had always treated them with the greatest consideration. Mr. Moore is not a Republican but is a staunch believer in the Union.
Mr. Moore is now living with his fifth wife, he being her third husband. He was first married, March 24, 1853, before he was twen- ty-one years old, to ,Clarissa Sparlock, who left two children, Mary, who died when she was eight years old, and Wesley, a farmer in Dunklin county. His second wife was Eliza Sands, a widow. Next he married Miss Hes- ter Ezel, who bore him four children: Mar -. garet, who died young; Robert, who also died young; Curtis, who is a farmer in Dunklin county; and Laura, who married Thomas Story, of Kennett. David's fourth wife was the widow Beckwith, to whom no children were born. His present wife's maiden name was Anna Catherine Haggard and she was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When she was twelve years old she came to Dunklin county with her parents, in 1858. Her father was Harland and her mother was Rachael Shelton before she was married. They set- tled at Brown's Ferry, where Mr. Haggard worked as a brick mason. He died at the age of fifty-one years and his widow also died at fifty-one years of age. Their daughter, Anna Catherine, married when she was sixteen years of age James Bird, with whom she lived for sixteen years and four children were born to them, as follows: Harland Bird, who married Fannie Campbell; Ellen, who be- came the wife of David Moore, junior, nephew of David Moore of Kennett; and the other two children died when they were in- fants. Mrs. Bird then married Elias Jordan. by whom she had two children, Lulu. who died at the age of nine years, and Wesley Jordan, who now lives at Sacramento, Cal- ifornia. She then married Mr. Moore, with whom she has been living for thirty-two years of wedded life. Two children were born to her and Mr. Moore: Eva, who married first Summers Burnett of Kennett and later mar- ried Gus Knocker of Texas, and Samantha. who is now the wife of Dr. A. S. Harrison, of Kennett.
Although Mr. Moore was brought up in the Methodist church, his views accord with those held by the little body of Disciples. He is a man who has lived a life well worth liv-
ing; he can look back over the years and think of the many worthy acts he has ac- complished, of his family relations, of his social connections, of his work on the land and he cannot help feeling that it has all been worth while, that he has lived to some purpose in the world, having served his Maker and his fellows to the best of his ability.
WILLIAM A. SOUTHERN. In all Dunklin county there is no farmer who is better known than Will A. Southern, president and general manager of the Farmers' Gin Com- pany. Not only is he prominent among the farmers of the community, but he has a very high standing with the various fraternal orders with which he is affiliated in various important connections. In any capacity he is a man fitted to lead and to bring things to pass, as a brief review of his life will clearly show.
William A. Southern was born in Tennes- see, that state to which so many Missouri farmers owe their birth, and he first made his appearance on the scene August 8, 1854, on a farm in Wayne county. His father, Peter Southern, was also a native of that state, where he received his education, mar- ried Elizabeth Midkiff and became one of the flourishing farmers of the section, where he had a large cotton plantation. When the war broke out conditions in the south were much unsettled and the farmers all found their re- sources greatly depleted, with no prospect of any immediate betterment. Peter South- ern lingered in the old home, hoping for bet- ter times, but in 1876 decided to try farming in Missouri. He therefore sold his farm for what it would bring and moved to Stoddard county, Missouri, where he bought a tract near Bernie and lived until his death, in 1889. He never felt that he had made very much headway in Missouri and when he died his widow returned to Tennessee, the home of her girlhood, where she resided some years, but is now living with her son Will at Kennett, Missouri.
All of the early years of William South- ern's life were spent in his native state, where he received his education and as a young man was married. He moved from Wayne to Lake county, but he did not feel that he had made a permanent settlement there. In 1885 he followed his father to Missouri, locating near Malden, and for four years took practically full charge of the
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM A. SOUTHERN
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farm which he purchased. When his father died he yielded to his mother's solicitations to return to Tennessee; disposed of the farm and went back to his native state, where he engaged in the mercantile business. One year was sufficient to convince Mr. Southern that he was not adapted to commercial life, and again he pulled up his stakes and re- turned to Missouri. He had liked the out- look that he had obtained of the agricultural possibilities in that state and he felt that it offered opportunities for success. Three years after he had left Missouri he returned to the state, and in 1892 located at Caruth, Dunklin county. For six years he farmed at Caruth, at the end of which period he took up his residence on the homestead which he occupied until removing to Kennett in August, 1911. His success has been steady since that time, so that now he is farming two hundred and sixty-five acres, two hun- dred and two and a half acres of which he owns himself, having practically dug the whole farm out of the forest and brought it under cultivation. When Mr. Southern first came to Missouri there were no patent cot- ton planters in all of Dunklin county; he had been accustomed to the methods of rais- ing cotton as practiced in Tennessee, and he introduced the cotton planter on Grand Prairie, by which act he first brought himself into prominence in the county. In addition to his farming enterprise Mr. Southern has a controlling interest in the Farmers' Gin Company, of which he is the president and general manager, as mentioned above: he also owns nine or ten houses and lots in Ken- nett, as the result of his successful farming since he came to Missouri. He is a member of the Farmers' Union and in connection with this organization and also through the introduction of the cotton planter, Mr. Southern has been all over the county and there is scarcely a farmer who does not know him.
While Mr. Southern was living in Tennes- see he married Miss Sarah Cartwright, of Decatur county, where the marriage was solemnized. To this union six children were born, of whom three are living: Lawrence, Mamie and Flora. In 1896, soon after he came to Caruth, Missouri, he married Miss Etta Reynolds, to whom were born Beckham and Lusetie, who are living, besides three deceased, two in infancy and one who be- came the wife of John Jones.
Although Mr. Southern is a stanch Demo-
crat, he has never had any aspirations for political honors ; he is desirous of seeing the country prosper and is ready to do his part towards that end, so that, with no wish to thrust himself forward, he is at present the incumbent of several offices. He is overseer of roads in District No. 45, which office he has filled for several years. He has always been interested in education and has been director of schools since 1901 and clerk of schools for the same period. If Mr. South- ern were not so prominent a farmer we should think of him as a lodge man, as he be- longs to seven fraternal orders and has won distinction in all of them. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of the Rebekahs; of the Knights of Pythias he being now the highest officer in his lodge; of the Modern Woodmen of America, and also the highest officer in that lodge. He is a member of the Knights of the Macca- bees and of the Star of Bethlehem, being general organizer of the latter in Dunklin county. He is also affiliated with the Tribe of Ben Hur lodge at Kennett, this being the largest lodge of the order in Missouri, for which Mr. Southern is to a large extent re- sponsible, he having around six hundred members. Although Mr. Southern has been in Dunklin county a comparatively short time, he has, nevertheless, become a man of prominence, not because he has shown any desire to push himself forward, but by rea- son of his strong personality. He is a pub- lic-spirited man who has identified himself with the interests of Dunklin county and is doing all in his power for its improvement.
DAVID PRATT GOFF, an enterprising mer- chant of Flat River, has had a successful career, and his personal record properly be- longs in the history of southeastern Missouri, where his family have lived for many years. He was born at Valley Mines, Missouri, Sep- tember 4, 1872. His father, David Daniel Goff, who was born in 1837 and died April 21. 1888, was a highly respected citizen. Fur- ther details concerning the family will be found on other pages in the sketch of James L. Goff. Of the nine children, five are living, and David P. was the fifth in order of birth.
Mr. Goff's early years were spent in Jef- ferson county, and the family home was moved to DeSoto from Valley Mines in 1881. After completing his education in the DeSoto public schools, he apprenticed himself to a machinist and learned and followed the trade
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until 1898. In that year he engaged in the mercantile business at DeSoto, and was one of the well known merchants of that town un- til he established the Goff Mercantile Com- pany's branch at Flat River in February, 1909. He still has interests at DeSoto, the store at that place being managed by his brother William G.
In politics Mr. Goff is a Democrat and dur- ing his residence in DeSoto was a member of the city council. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and af- filiates with the Masonic order, the Royal Ar- canum and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On Christmas day of 1897 he married Miss Etta Carrie McClain, of Valley Mines, Mis- souri. They have three children: Irene, Charles and James.
JAMES HOUSTON DORIS. Life is a voyage, in the progress of which we are perpetually changing our scenes. James Houston Doris has arrived at a port where he can stop and look back at the part of the voyage that has passed. He has seen the good and the evil that are in the world, the ups and the downs, and he has learned to be uncensorions, hu- mane. He has learned to attribute the best motives to every action and to be chary of imputing a sweeping and cruel blame. He has no finger of scorn to point at anything under the sun. Along with this pleasant blandness and charity there is a certain grave, serious humor. From this same port he can see an expanse of waters covered with a mist. If there are rocks ahead he cannot see them; if there are whirlpools he hopes to be able to avoid them by steering his boat with the same steady hand which has been his salvation in the past.
James Ilouston Doris (leaving all meta- phor on one side) was born at Dixon, Web- ster county, Kentucky, March 3, 1863. His father, Marion Francis Doris, was born in Kentucky, where he spent all of his life. He was a farmer and died when James was about two years old. Mr. Marion Francis Doris had married Sarah E. Morgan, a na- tive of Kentucky, by whom he had one child. After his death Mrs. Doris married another Kentucky gentleman, William Price. Three children were born to this marriage, all of whom are living with their mother in Reyn- olds county, Missouri.
James has no remembrance of his father, who died when he was only two years old, but he does remember his Kentucky home
and the school where he was educated until he was sixteen years old. At that time he came to southeastern Missouri, located in Shannon county, and he took up the study of law. In 1896 he was admitted to the bar, practicing in Shannon county, at Winona, until 1907. He then came to Cape Girar- deau, where he has been in practice ever since. He is a staunch Republican and has been most active in political matters. While he was in Winona he was mayor of the city for two terms, serving four years in all. On November 8, 1910, he was elected prosecut- ing attorney on the Republican ticket, having held that position ever since. He has a good general practice in Cape Girardeau.
In the year 1880 he married Theresa E. Helvery of Reynolds county, Missouri, since when five children have been born to the union. Their names are Seth A., George M., Mike L., James H. and Rosco C., all having been born in southeastern Missouri and are unusually healthy and strong. The youngest is only fourteen years old and weighs a hundred and fifty pounds without his clothes. The other boys are equally well developed.
Mr. Doris is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Eagles of Cape Girardeau, heing very popular in both of these organizations. His family is very well known in this part of the state, Mr. Doris being prominent in all matters con- cerning the welfare of his adopted state. On the other hand, he is a man who is greatly appreciated in the community, both on ac- count of the things he has done and because of what he himself is.
WILLIAM H. DAFFRON. Man's first occupa- tion in the evolution from the barbarian stage to civilization, and his best, according to many, since it has ever tended to endow its sons with physical strength and moral power, agriculture has in William H. Daffron, of Wayne county, one more representative to prove these points.
He was born in Georgia. February 8, 1847, the son of another worthy tiller of the soil, Smith Daffron. He was a native of South Carolina. his birth having occurred in 1819, and he died at the age of fifty-three years. His first wife. the mother of William H., was Elizabeth (Chasteen) Daffron, a native of Georgia, and they were also the parents of Mary E., now the wife of Hiram Kimes, of Reynolds county, and six other children, now
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deceased. On the 19th of July, 1859, he was again married, his bride being Miss Elizabeth Gilbert, now the widow of William Stokley, and a resident of Greenville, and they became the parents of three children, of whom two are now living, namely: Isaac N. Daffron, of Greenville, and Thomas E., of Piedmont, Missouri.
In 1857, feeling the impulse to essay farm- ing in the territory further west, the elder Mr. Daffron removed with his family to Mis- souri, locating on Mckenzie's creek, two miles north of Piedmont. At that site he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land and an unfinished water power grist mill, which he subsequently finished and operated. He was further equipped for life in that he was a carpenter by trade, and together with an- other mechanic he is said to have built most of the first churches and schoolhouses in that neighborhood. He is a devout member of the Baptist church, and used his ballot in behalf of the candidates nominated by the Demo- cratic party, whose loyal advocate he was.
His son, William H. Daffron, whose name forms the caption of this brief sketch, was reared amid the vicissitudes of early Mis- souri farm life, and received but little op- portunity to attend the schools of the district. He was the eldest son and second child in the family, and unlike the pleasant lot of the eld- est son under English regimes, the first born of the frontier farmer early came to share all of the earnest labors of the farmer who reaps a worthy harvest. He also learned the miller's trade, and following his father's death, while he was still in his eighteenth year, he managed both mill and farm until the second marriage of his step-mother, after which event the family property was sold. Mr. Daffron, in 1878, married Jane Fulton, who was born in Wayne county, one mile southeast of Patterson, the daughter of James Fulton, from Virginia and an early settler in Wayne county. Seven children were the issue of this union, of whom three survive, namely : Malinda, wife of M. E. Nokes, a resident of Texas; Elizabeth, wife of Adolph Nokes, and a resident of Texas; and Alice, who also makes her present home in the Lone Star state. Mrs. Jane Daffron died in 1886, at the age of about thirty years.
Mrs. Orpha (Warren) Deft, the widow of William Deft and by him the mother of two children, namely: Maud, who became the wife of Clinton Patterson of Piedmont; and Blanch, wife of John Stockton of Wayne
county, became the second wife of William Daffron, and they are now the parents of two children, of whom they may well be proud, Nannie and Alphia.
Mr. Daffron is considered by many the best farmer in Wayne county, and a survey of his prosperous and excellently developed farm, comprising four hundred acres of fer- tile land, is convincing. Despite his earnest interest in all that may contribute to the wise management and well being of the county in which he makes his home, he has never held public office, since he feels that other men better equipped by the advantages of educa- tional training can render more efficient serv- ice to the community. In his religious af- filiations he is a faithful and valued member of the Missionary Baptist church.
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