USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 20
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possible, giving money and time for the sup- port of its various enterprises. Mrs. Bragg died at the age of fifty-seven, having borne twelve children, those besides William G. be- ing : Mary E., who is now the widow of Col- onel Solomon G. Kitchen and is living in the state of Washington. Leonard T. has been in the flouring mill business at Colfax, Washington. He is now retired. Martha H. married John C. Towson, a manufacturer living at Sikeston, Missouri. Bettie is the widow of Edward B. Sturgis, who was a merchant at Kennett. Anna married Benja- min T. Walker and she died young. Ruth B. married Dr. N. F. Kelley, late of Kennett. She died in Kennett. Cornelia V. married Dr. A. B. Mobley, who died January 21, 1911, she having died some years ago. Eva M. is the wife of A. J. Sellers, of Arkansas; he is her second husband, she having first married the Honorable James P. Walker, ex-member of congress, late of Dexter, Mis- souri. Lillian F. married James F. Tatum, an old established merchant at Kennett, now dead. She still lives at Kennett. Con- stance married Frank Sanders. She died young, leaving two sons and one daughter, one of whom, Robert, is assistant cashier in the Bank of Kennett. Robert Bruce is the youngest of this large and interesting fam- ily. When he was a young man he went to Oregon, where he became a merchant at Hood Rim, Oregon.
William G. Bragg was only thirteen years old when the family first came to Kennett, but he even then began to show of what stuff he was made. He worked in his father's store and also worked for others. In 1879 he opened a general store of his own, continuing in the merchandise business for about twenty years. In 1882 he was elected clerk of circuit court and recorder of deeds, offices which his brother and his father had both held. At the end of his term he was re-elected on the Democratic ticket. After the close of his second term he went back to the merchandise business, in which he continued until 1893. During this time he went out to the state of Wash- ington, where he engaged in the real estate business at Pullman for two years. He is now in the real estate and insurance busi- ness at Kennett, where he handles his own property very largely, buying and selling farm lands and city land. He has laid out additions to Kennett, one called the Bragg Addition in his honor; here he sells and
builds on easy terms. Mr. Bragg has always been a staunch Democrat, but he does not concern himself with politics any more. He has served as delegate to various con- ventions and served his party in other ways. He is, however, not the less interested in the county.
On May 3, 1877, he married Kittie V. Chapman, of Grand Prairie, eight miles south of Kennett. She is the daughter of Mrs. W. H. Helm, who was born at Hickman in Kentucky and came to Missouri as Mrs. Chapman in 1852 and soon afterward she married W. H. Helm, a native of Tennessee, who came to Missouri from Arkansas dur- ing the war. Kittie V., now Mrs. Bragg, was only an infant when her mother brought her to Missouri. At that time Ken- nett had very few people, so that Mrs. Helm and her daughter are among the oldest resi- dents of Dunklin county. Mrs. Helm saw the country in its primitive condition and has watched its progress with the deepest interest. Sidney Douglas, well known in Kennett, is a grand-nephew of Mrs. Helm, his father's mother being a sister to Mrs. Helm. Mrs. Helm has been a member of the Church of Christ in Kennett for over fifty years. She had the misfortune to lose her second husband after about thirty years of wedded life. Mr. and Mrs. William G. Bragg have one son, William Ballard, aged thirteen, now attending school.
Mr. Bragg can lay claim to heing the old- est male resident in Kennett, as there is not a house standing nor a person living here who was in Kennett when he came here in 1865. He and his wife are both members of the Christian church, which would suffer greatly if it did not have the help of the Bragg family. Surely Mr. Bragg has lived a life full of usefulness. He has kept right on in the race of life, one of the leaders throughout. He has not yet reached the last goal, but has time for more efforts. He shows no sign of loss of interest in any of the things he has always taken such an ac- tive part in, but we believe will keep right on to the end and will gain the reward he so merits, the words of commendation, "well done."
FREDERICK KATHS. The state of Prussia has contributed lavishly to the strength of Amer- ica and the career of Mr. Frederick Kaths is a distinguished example of what the tireless in- dustry, skilled workmanship and sound judg-
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ment as well as initiative in business, which the German stock bring to this land, can ac- complish in a country so rich in opportunity as Iron county.
Mr. Kaths was born in Prussia, Germany, October 22, 1834. His father, Herman Kaths, was a broad-cloth weaver by trade. Both of his parents died in Germany while Frederick was a small child. There were nine children in the Kaths family, one of whom, Herman, is still living at the age of eighty-four years. He resides in East St. Louis and has spent an active life devoted to mining and other pursuits. Frederick Kaths received the com- mon school education in Germany and learned the trade of shoe-maker. At the age of twenty-two, in 1856, he came to America, landing at New Orleans. He had no funds, but possessed the more valuable equipment of health and ambition. He worked at his trade of shoe-maker some ten or twelve years. He remained in New Orleans only one year and in April, 1857, came north to Mis- souri by steamboat to Iron county, where he had friends with whom he had been corresponding. In Missouri he continued to follow his trade and in 1860 started in the mer- cantile business. The year previous, in 1859, Mr. Kaths went from the Belleview Valley, Missouri, with a party with ox-teams and pros- pected and mined in Colorado, in the vicin- ity of Pike's Peak, during the summer. He conducted a saloon in Pilot Knob and worked at his trade in Fredericktown. After ten years he bought an interest in the Ironton Manufacturing & Milling Company and was active in that business for several years. Milling continued to be one of his chief enter- prises until 1885. Meantime he was enter- ing into other pursuits.
He opened a store at Graniteville in part- nership with Mr. John Schwab, a man of con- spicuous business sagacity, who died in the summer of 1911. Mr. Kaths and Mr. Schwab carried on the store together for several years, and then Mr. Schwab bought out his part- ner's interest. During this time Mr. Kaths had bought and sold considerable land and also engaged in the mining business for sev- eral years. One of his recent transactions was the sale of the land to the Epworth Methodist Association. The tract is beautifully located and is about two hundred and forty-five acres in extent. Mr. Kaths has retired from busi- ness now and is the owner of large real estate interests in Ironton and in Pilot Knob where he has resided since 1860. His beautiful
home in that city, with its many improve- ments, is not the least valuable of his many holdings.
Like her husband, Mrs. Kaths is a native of Prussia. Her family came to America three years before Mr. Kaths' arrival. Her maiden name was Dorothy C. Romer. Her father, Theodore Romer, was a miner at Mine La Motte, operating the mine on a royalty basis. Later he removed to Pilot Knob, where he resided until his death. Mrs. Kaths is now about sixty-seven years old.
Six sons and three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kaths. Two of the sons are dead and of the four remaining three live in Kansas. Ferdinand is engaged in the bank- ing business at Stafford, Kansas. Frederick W. is with the Larrabee Milling Company of Hutchison, Kansas. This company is an im- mense corporation and their plant at Hutch- ison has an output of two thousand barrels a day. Herbert A. is also engaged in banking business, but in Turon, Kansas. William, just older than Herbert, is in the U. S. mail service at Little Rock, Arkansas. Frederick W. is the only one of the sons who is mar- ried. Of the daughters, Miss Annie resides at the home in Pilot Knob with her parents. Mrs. Hinsdale, nee Augusta Katlıs, has her home in Pilot Knob also. Emma, the wife of Dr. Blanks, lives in Mexico, Missouri. Mrs. Hinsdale has two daughters and Mrs. Blanks, one.
Mr. Kaths is a Republican in politics. So- cially he is a member of the Masonic lodge of Ironton. In this ancient fraternity, he en- joys the distinction of being probably the old- est mason in Iron county, as he was taken into the lodge in about 1862. Mrs. Kaths is a mem- ber of the Lutheran church.
NOFFLIT JONES WAGSTER, SR. A large pro- portion of our population are farmers. Nofflit J. Wagster, a successful farmer of Caruth, was born in Hornersville, Dunklin 'county, October 31. 1859. He is the son of Crit- tenden and Kiddy (Jones) Wagster. Mr. Wagster died in 1866, and his wife in 1897. He had been a merchant and a farmer all of his life. He was born in Tennessee and was reared and married there, coming to Dunklin county, Missouri, in 1846. He and Mr. R. H. Douglass were in the general merchandise business at Hornersville, under the firm name of Wagster and Douglass. Mr. C. Wagster owned some five acres of land on the present site of the business portion of Hornersville,
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and he was successful in his operations. He was a Democrat and served as sheriff of Obion county, Tennessee. Mrs. Wagster was a native of South Carolina.
Nofflit J. was brought up on his father's farm, going to the country school as soon as he was old enough. He then went to the public school at Arcadia, Iron county, Mis- souri, for two years and to the state normal at Cape Girardeau for one year. After he had finished his school education he went to Denver, Colorado, where he worked in a sales stable of Wall and Winter. He secured an interest in the business, but at the close of one year's work he sold out and returned home, no better off than when he went except for the year's experience, which was worth some- thing to him. He started in farming in Dunk- lin county, buying twenty-one acres of land on time, selling the mule out of the harness to pay the cash deposit. His farm was on Horse Island and at the end of four years of hard work he bought forty-two more acres on the same island and built a house, in which he lived for five years, at the expiration of which time he bought another tract of sixty acres on credit, having paid for the rest of the land by this time. He had at one time in all one hun- dred and eleven acres, which he sold at a good profit. He took his money and went to Oklahoma, locating twenty-six miles west of Oklahoma City, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of prairie land. After living there for three years he sold the land for two thousand dollars more than he paid for it. He owned some property in El Reno, Okla- homa, until recently when he sold. He came back to Missouri, bought one hundred and twenty acres of land at Caruth, January 1, 1910, and he has since that time bought an- other twenty acres of land. the entire tract meaning an investment of thirteen thousand dollars. Corn and cotton are its main crops.
On Mav 9, 1888, soon after Mr. Wagster came back from Denver, he married Elnora Hoffman at Cotton Plant. On December 11, 1899, their daughter Pearl was born. She lives at home with her father. On April 11, 1908. Pearl's mother died. and on December 11. 1910. he married Miss Melissa Miles.
Mr. Wagster was a member for years of the Methodist Episcopal church. Tatum's Chapel, on Horse Island. He also belongs to the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows. the Wood- men of the World and the Rebekah Lodge. all of Caruth. He is a member of the Farmers' Union and one of its staunchest supporters.
In political belief he is a Democrat. Mr. Wag- ster is very well liked in the county, for one reason because he is always ready to lend a helping hand to any one who is struggling to make his way in life. He has had a hard time himself, but has had no help from any one and all that he did was through sheer hard work. His father died when he was six years old, so that there was no help from that source. He has. however, always been successful, ex- cept during the year he went to Colorado. He had to borrow money to marry his first wife, but has made money since that time. He is improving his house and outbuildings and has put up fenees, now owning a very fine farm. For the most part he grows cotton, this year (1911) having planted cotton on over one hun- dred acres, but he grows some corn also. Some men who have made their way alone are not willing to help others, they think that what they themselves have done others can do, but it is not so with Mr. Wagster. He is anxious to keep others from experiencing the difficulties he has overcome and never misses an opportunity to help, as far as his means will allow.
JOHN BUTLER. An oculist and aurist of high reputation and large practice, Dr. John Butler, of Blackwell, is a stanch Missourian by birth, education, professional training and decided preference. Born in Salem, Dent county, Missouri, October 18, 1863, he laid the foundation of his education in the public schools of that place, and after graduating from its high school he spent four years in teaching. During the latter period he read medicine and studied pharmacy, spending his so-called vacations as an employe in various drug stores. After four years of active ex- perience in the drug business he obtained his state certificate of pharmacy (in 1889).
The foregoing experience and study formed a solid foundation for Dr. Butler's medical studies and practice, and in 1890 he was matriculated at the Missouri Medical College, St. Louis, but obtained his degree, in 1892, from the Beaumont Hospital and Med- ical College and began practice at Oak Hill, Crawford county. There he remained active in professional work for the succeeding six years; then practiced in St. Louis until 1906, since which year he has been a resident phy- sician of Blackwell, devoted to the delicate and intricate specialties of treating affections of the eye and ear.
In the prosecution of these specialties, the
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Doctor has enjoyed a thorough training, both in theory and practice. While in St. Louis he pursued a post-graduate course of fifteen months in the medical school of the Washing- ton University, and for a year and a half served upon the attending staff of the Oph- thalmic Dispensary of that city. While Dr. Butler makes a specialty of diagnosing and treating diseases of the eye and ear, he is a skilled general physician and surgeon with a large and increasing clientele. His practice in St. Louis was of the most encouraging na- ture, but he was obliged to leave the larger city on account of a chronic throat affection, which necessitates a residence in a wooded district of pure air and invigorating sur- roundings; all of these requirements are met at Blackwell and vicinity, so that he is now both on the highway to health, with a splendid record behind him, and the promise of even a brighter future. He is a thorough student, skilled in practice, sociable, popular and a representative citizen; specifically, also, he is a Democrat, affiliated with the Maccabees and Modern Woodmen of America, and member of the Christian church.
In 1894 Dr. Butler was married to Miss Emma May Miller, of St. Louis, and the chil- dren born to them have been Morris Frank- lin, Frances Naomi, Julia May, Raymond Clinton and Russell Manning Butler.
EDWARD A. ROZIER. Among the distinct- ively prominent and brilliant lawyers of the state of Missouri none is more versatile, tal- ented or well equipped for the work of his profession than Edward Amabel Rozier, who maintains his home and business head- quarters at Farmington, Missouri. Through- out his career as an able attorney and well fortified counselor he has, by reason of unim- peachable conduct and close observance of the unwritten code of professional ethics, gained the admiration and respect of his fel- low members of the bar, in addition to which he commands a high place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
Edward Amahel Rozier was born at St. Genevieve, Missouri, on the 9th of December, 1857, and he is a son of Edward A. Rozier, Sr., who was likewise horn at St. Genevieve, the year of his nativity having been 1831. The father was educated in the parochial schools of St. Genevieve and at the "Bar- rons" in Perryville. In 1849 he made the overland trip to California with a party of enthusiastic "Forty-niners," returning east
via the Isthmus of Panama and landing in the city of New Orleans, where he remained for some time, studying law under the able preceptorship of his brother. In 1851 he re- turned to St. Genevieve, this state, where he initiated the active practice of his profession and where for a time he was editor of the Plain Dealer, an early newspaper in this section of the country. He married Miss Lavinia Skewes and they became the parents of two children, William Skewes Rozier, who died at the age of twenty-six years, being at that time a very successful lawyer, and Ed- ward A., Jr., the immediate subject of this review. During his short but brilliant career William S. Rozier made a very fine name for himself, having become widely renowned as an exceptionally gifted speaker. The father was summoned to the life eternal in the year 1857, at the very early age of twenty-six years. Mrs. Rozier long survived her hon- ored husband and she passed away in 1903, at the age of sixty-six years.
To the public schools of his native place Edward A. Rozier, of this review, is indebted for his preliminary educational discipline, which training was later supplemented by a course in the University of Missouri, at Columbia. As a young man he decided upon the legal profession as his life work and with that object in view he began to read law in the office of J. B. Robbins, of Perry county, Missouri. So rapid was his progress in the absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence that he was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1878, at the early age of twenty years. He immediately opened of- fices at St. Genevieve, where he succeeded in working up a large and representative client- age and where on three different occasions he was elected prosecuting attorney of St. Genevieve county. In 1898 he was appointed United States district attorney at St. Louis and he served in that capacity with all of honor and distinction for a period of four years, at the expiration of which, in 1902, he located at Farmington, where he has since resided and where he is accorded recognition as one of the leading lawyers of southeastern Missouri. On two different occasions Mr. Rozier was regent of the Cape Girardeau Normal School and he has always manifested a very deep and sincere interest in educa- tional affairs and in the youth of the land. He is very active and exceedingly successful as a lawyer and in connection with his legal work is affiliated with a number of representa-
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tive bar associations. In politics he accords an uncompromising allegiance to the prin- ciples and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he is unusually ac- tive in the work of that organization in this section of the state. In a fraternal way he is a valned member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and he is also connected with the Commercial Club of Farmington, of which he is president.
On the 3d of May, 1881, Mr. Rozier was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Carlisle, of St. Genevieve. To this union have been born three children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated,- Gladys is the wife of Paul B. Leming, of Cape Girardeau; Carlisle is assistant county clerk at Cape Girardeau; and Lavinia re- mains at home. In religious faith the family are consistent members of the Catholic church and they are prominent factors in connection with the best social activities of Farmington, where their large and attractive home is the scene of many happy social gatherings.
ARTHUR O. CONRAD., If, as the sage says, it is worthy of immortality to make two blades of grass grow where only one grew be- fore, surely the man who makes two bushels of wheat grow where but one was harvested before is to be ranked high in the roll of the soldiers of industry. Arthur O. Conrad has the honor of raising the record crop of wheat in southeast Missouri. On a plot of thirteen acres the yield was three hundred and eighty- seven bushels. Needless to say, he is one of the successful farmers of the region.
Mr. Arthur Conrad is one of the twelve children of Peter R. Conrad, and his dis- tinguished ancestry, as well as the names of his brothers and sisters, will be found in the account of his father's life. Arthur was born February 2, 1877, in Bollinger county, and with the exception of a few years spent in California he has remained all his life on a farm in its borders.
In February, 1906, Mr. Conrad purchased one hundred and ninety-three acres of land on Whitewater creek. This was formerly the John I. Courad farm. Eighty acres of it are in cultivation and the rest in timber and pasture land. Besides his crops, Mr. Conrad raises some cattle, hogs and sheep. About half a year before buying this farm, on August 31, 1905, the marriage of Arthur Conrad and Ida, daughter of Thomas and Sophia Murray, was solemnized. At the
time of the wedding the Murray family were residents of Perry county, but their home is now in Bollinger county. There have been four children born of this union, one of whom died in infancy. The others are Meda Pearl, born August 26, 1906; Myron Murray, Feb- ruary 7, 1909; and Milton Glen, November 28, 1910.
Like the most of the Conrads, Mr. Arthur is a member of the Presbyterian church.
BERT SUMPTER. Although Bert Sumpter. postmaster at Leadwood, is only a short way past his majority, he has already manifested sufficient force of character, ability and good citizenship to entitle him to high and definite standing in the community. He is a native born to the great state of Missouri, his birth having occurred at Lesterville, Reynolds county, May 27, 1888. His father, Reuben V Sumpter, who was born in the year 1847. and who claims Iron county as the district of his nativity is a man of honor in his community and a veteran of the Civil war. He passed his early life upon the farm, becoming like most farmers' sons familiar with the many phases of seed time and harvest. Although only abont fifteen years of age when the first guns were fired at Fort Sumter, he enlisted as soon as accepted, his sympathies being with the preservation of the integrity of the Union. He wore the blue as a member of a Missouri regi- ment. When peace returned to a devastated land, Mr. Sumpter, senior, returned to his home and soon after married Mary J. Gog- gins, a young woman born in Reynolds county, Missouri, becoming his wife. To their union six children were born, Bert, of this review, being the eldest in order of birth. The father and mother reside in the vicinity of Elvins and the former is engaged in agriculture The elder gentleman gives heart and hand to the Republican party, to whose policies and principles he has ever been devoted, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist church, doing all in their power to assist in its campaigns for righteousness. He is a Mason and is thoroughly in sympathy with the principles of moral and social jus- tice and altruism for which the time-honored fraternity stands.
Bert Sumpter spent his early life in Rey. nolds county and received his education in the public schools provided by the same. Af- ter finishing school he worked for a time upon the farm and, if experience and ability count for aught, could be a successful ex-
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D. O. Graves
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ponent of the great basic industry if he so desired. His tastes lie, however, in other di- rections, and in 1905, he left the parental roof-tree and came to Elvins, Missouri, where he secured work in the mines and continued thus employed until 1909. In that year he entered the post office at Elvins as assistant postmaster, continuing until March, 1911,. when he came to Leadwood and was assistant postmaster here until July 24, 1911, at which time he was appointed postmaster. He has proved faithful and efficient.
Mr. Sumpter was happily married when on the 2d day of January, 1910, he was united to Frona Tucker, of Ironton, Mrs. Sumpter being a daughter of W. D. and Cynthia (Johnston) Tucker. The subject is a Repub- lican and is ever ready to do all in his power for the success of his party. He is a mem- ber of the Baptist church and belongs to the C. of H. Lodge.
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