History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 21

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 21

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FAYETTE PARSONS GRAVES, the secretary and a director of the Doe Run Lead Com- pany and until recently active manager of that important industry, is one of the best known citizens of the lead belt. He began his business career here over forty years ago, as an employe in a lead plant, soon proved his industry and executive ability, and for many years has been one of the controlling factors in the industries of this region.

The prosperous town of Doe Run may properly be said to have been founded by Mr. Graves in 1887. The first log house is yet on the site, and the old building still stands as the first monument of civilization in what is now one of the best towns of south- eastern Missouri.

Mr. Graves was born in Rochester, New York, January 17, 1849, a son of William Henry and Julia (Parsons) Graves. When he was a few months old he lost his mother and twin brother, and eight years later came the death of his father, who was salesman for one of Rochester's seed houses. He after- wards lived in the home of his grandmother, then with an uncle at Burr Oak, Michigan, and at the age of twelve went to the home of an aunt at Hillsdale, Michigan. He attended school at Burr Oak and Hillsdale, also a private school in the latter place, and when seventeen years old was sent to Southampton, Massachusetts, and in 1866 entered Williston Seminary at Easthampton.

Being unable to continue until he com- pleted the full course, he came west to Mis-

souri in 1868 and found his first employment in the St. Joseph lead mines at Bonne Terre. After two years in the mills and shops of the company he was promoted to the position of cashier and continued in that capacity for over nineteen years.

In 1887 he was identified with the organ- ization of the Doe Run Lead Company, at which time he became a resident of Doe Run and in charge of the works at this place. Few employers have been more closely associated with their men than Mr. Graves. While he has acquired wealth and distinction, it has been his pleasure to contribute a generous share to the welfare and comfort of the men at the works. The club house, with its bowl- ing alleys, billiard and pool rooms and other attractions, is the center of social life for this community, and in establishing and maintain- ing it successfully Mr. Graves has accom- plished a work that can be mentioned with pride. Mr. Graves has a state and national reputation in the sport of bowling, being pro- ficient in that game himself, but more on account of his enthusiastic efforts for the pro- motion of this department of sports.

The Graves museum of minerals, ancient vessels and arms of the orient, rare coins, implements of the stone age; rare books and manuscripts, and some six thousand stamps, comprise one of the finest collections in the United States and is one of the attractions of southeastern Missouri Mr. Graves has spent thirty-five years in assembling the specimens, at great cost of labor and money. The original collection was a box of ores which he kept in the office at Bonne Terre in 1870. A brick fireproof building, thirty by sixty feet, is now the home of the collection. The choic- est specimens have been on exhibition at all the important world's fairs and expositions held in this country since 1876, and the prize awards bestowed on them would make quite a collection of themselves. Mr. Graves was appointed by Governor Dockery as Missouri commissioner of mines and mining at the Pan- American exposition at Buffalo in 1901, and also at the Charleston exposition of 1902.

Mr. Graves is a stanch Republican, and served as postmaster at Doe Run from 1887 to 1891. He is a member of the Masonic order and the A. O. U. W., and his church is the Congregational.

Mrs. Graves before her marriage was Miss Mary E. Woodside, of Bonne Terre. Five, children were born to them, and the two now living are Dr. John B., of Sikeston, Missouri, ·

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and Mrs. J. V. Braham, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

W. N. COLE. A citizen of Dunklin county whose career has been long and varied and has brought large prosperity and esteem as a result, Mr. W. N. Cole, of Hornersville, began life with nothing and by industry and an ability to do things well has never had to com- plain of fortune's treatment.

He was born in Tennessee, September 22, 1853, and in the year of 1857 the family moved to New Madrid county, Missouri. His father had been a soldier of the Mexican war. During his youth here he had very little schooling. When he was about nineteen his father and he moved to Howell county, Mis- souri, his mother having died. The young man then married, but his first wife lived less than a year, and he and his father then returned to New Madrid county, where he married Miss Elizabeth Ballard. They here had the following children: Richard, Lula Belle, Wallace F., John, Pearl and Irene.

In 1876 he came to Dunklin county and bought nineteen acres of land. To pay for this he worked at twenty dollars a month, and after he had paid for the little place and lived on it two years he sold and then bought one hundred and sixty acres in the wood, all timber. This is his home farm, but in the subsequent years his industry and manage- ment have transformed it into one of the best improved places in this neighborhood. He cleared it, all but eight acres, and built two houses and barns. A forty acres across from this place he bought at $68.35 an acre, and it is now worth over a hundred dollars an acre.

In addition to farming he has been very active in other lines of business. He is a ditch contractor and is now engaged in the construction of a ditch eleven and a half miles long from the state line to Tom Douglass', one mile west of Caruth. For eleven years he was a licensed pilot on the Mississippi river, and spent eleven years on the river, eight years as pilot and master of steam vessels. He was one of the capable river men and he received good pay, and dur- ing this period of his career he kept a tenant on his farm, and in this way was able to ac- cumulate a good property. For several years he engaged in the construction of cotton gins, doing this work all the way from ·Osecola, Arkansas, to Kennett, Missouri. He put up the first modern gin at Hornersville,

for Mr. A. J. Langdon. An excellent me- chanie, he has turned his skill to profit and service in many ways.

Mr. Cole served as a member of the county court four years, being appointed by the gov- ernor at first to serve an unexpired term. During this time he was one of the members that organized the St. Francis Levee district, and two thousand dollars was appropriated to remove the drift from the river, a work that was so far successful as to make the river navigable. Fraternally Mr. Cole is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Hornersville, the Elks at Paragould, the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic lodge at Cardwell.

SYENITE GRANITE COMPANY. A gigantic industrial concern that has proved of more than local value to the community of Gran- iteville and Iron county at large, the Syenite Granite Company has greatly promoted the commercial activity of the entire state of Missouri. This company leases some twelve hundred acres of land in the northern part of Iron county, where it operates the Syenite red granite quarries, its product being prac- tically the same as the old Egyptian syenite granite, suitable for window sills, massive columns, monuments, etc. The company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri in 1882, the leading spirits in the movement being W. R. Allen, E. M. Smith and T. F. Walsh. At that early day the quarries at Syenite, in St. Francois county, Missouri, had already been opened and for the succeeding ten or twelve years they were operated by this company. At the expira- tion of that period, in 1882, removal was made to Graniteville, where the United States government was already engaged in the production of granite for public build- ings, its plant being in charge of P. W. Schneider, who later removed to a quarry one mile north of Graniteville. This lease is owned by the operators of the old Iron Mountain Mine. The narrow gauge railroad has been replaced by the present standard gauge railroad, connected with the Iron Mountain line at Middlebrook, Missouri, thus giving ample facilities for the transportation of products. The plant is fully equipped with up-to-date machinery, immense travel- ing crane, compressed air tools, etc., for cut- ting and polishing the granite. Some sixty skilled men and about twenty other workmen are employed at the present time, in 1911. Formerly some fifteen hundred men were

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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

employed, but this was in the days before the introduction of cheaper stone, when pav- ing was done with this quality granite. The Syenite Granite Company is capitalized with a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, fully paid up and the official corps is as follows: W. R. Allen, president; T. F. Walsh, vice-president and treasurer; and H. W. Allen, secretary. In connection with its quarries the Company conducts a large gen- eral store at Graniteville.

Concerning the tensile strength of the granite produced by this company the fol- lowing letter from J. B. Johnson, professor of civil engineering at Washington Univer- sity, St. Louis, is here incorporated, the same having been written June 14, 1895.

"Referring to your letter of inquiry of the 13th, I am pleased to inform you that the two specimens of granite which you sent me were ground down by me on their top and bottom faces to true parallel planes, leaving prisms, which were 3.85 square inches and 3.78 square inches in area respectively. These specimens broke, the former at 93,100 pounds or 24,200 pounds per square inch, and the latter at 95,700 pounds, or 26,400 pounds per square inch.

"These results are higher than I can find on record for granite, and the tests were made also on prisms about twice as high as they were in lateral dimension. In other words, the prisms were about four inches high, and about two inches square.

"From the law of the variation of crush- ing strength with height of specimen, I would infer that if these specimens had been tested in a cubical form, and prepared in a similar manner, their strength would have been something over 27,000 and 29,000 pounds per square inch respectively."

Signed, J. B. Johnson.

The granite from the quarries of the Syen- ite Granite Company has been used exten- sively and gives universal satisfaction. It has been used and may be seen in prominent buildings in nearly every large city in the United States and it has been found pecu- liarly adaptable for monumental purposes.

William R. Allen, Jr., who has been active- ly connected with the work and management of the Company during practically his en- tire active career, is a native of the city of St. Louis but he has resided at Graniteville for the past thirteen years. In addition to his other interests he is postmaster at Gran- iteville, where he is honored and respected

as a man of unusual loyalty and public spirit. He was born on the 15th of June, 1878, and is a son of William R. Allen, president of the Syenite Granite Company. The father was born in St. Louis, in 1847, and is a son of the Hon. Thomas Allen, who constructed the Iron Mountain Railroad and the South- ern Hotel, at St. Louis. Thomas Allen mar- ried Miss Ann Clementine Russell, of Belle- view, Missouri, and they reared a large family of children at St. Louis. He was not interested in the Syenite Granite Company but promoted a number of other important business enterprises in St. Louis and in 1880- 82 represented the St. Louis district of Mis- souri in the United States Congress, his death having occurred at Washington, D. C., in 1882. He also served with the utmost ef- ficiency as state senator in the Missouri legis- lature and in 1858 he founded the Allen, Copp & Neshit Banking House at St. Louis. Wil- liam R. Allen, Sr., is owner of the Allen farm, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he has maintained his home since 1882. In addition to being president of the granite company mentioned in this review he is also president of the Southern Hotel Company. He married Miss Louise B. Woodward, a native of St. Louis and a scion of an old and honored Con- necticut family.

The third in order of birth of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. William R. Allen, Sr., William R. Allen, Jr., has one brother living at the present time, in 1911, namely,-Henry W., who is secretary of the Syenite Granite Company and who resides at St. Louis, where he is lawyer and counsel for the Guarantee Title & Trust Company. William R. Allen, Jr., was educated in the east, where he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commonly known as the "Boston Tech." Since 1903 he has been the postmaster at Graniteville. At St. Louis, in 1905, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Florence York, a native of St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have two sons, F. York and W. R., third.

CLAUDE E. ABSHIER, editor and proprietor of the Desloge Sun, is one of the most enter- prising newspaper men of Southeast Mis- souri. Since the paper came under his own- ership in 1907 it has improved in all the fea- tures which mark a first-class local journal, and in the last two years its circulation has trebled, which is the best indication of the value of a newspaper's existence. Mr. Abshier

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is a practical printer and all-around news- of three children: Oscar Mason, deceased; paper man, and entered the business when Thomas Gurley, and Gladys Pauline. a boy. He is a member of the Press Asso- ciation of Missouri.

He was born in Spencer county, Indiana, October 31. 1873. His father, Alfred Abshier, was born in Illinois in 1848. accompanied the family to Indiana, where he grew to man- hood, and at the age of eighteen enlisted in the Tenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Cav- alry, January 18, 1864, for service in the Civil war. He was mustered out at Evansville, Indiana, May 25, 1865. Previous to this he had acquired a good literary education and had studied medicine, and after the war he engaged in practice in Indiana. In 1873 he moved to Scott county, Missouri, where his time was divided between the practice of medicine, teaching school and farming. He took up a homestead and was employed in developing it for ten years. In 1886, after having returned to Indiana and resided at Booneville, he moved his family to Florida, where he still resides. He has a good prac- tice and is secretary of the Welaka Board of Trade. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Christian church. At the close of the war he was married to Miss Nancy Ray, of Spencer county. Her death occurred in 1904, and in 1905 he was again mar- ried. By his first marriage ten children were born, five sons and five daughters, Claude being the second living child.

Claude E. Abshier's early life was spent in Southeast Missouri, in Scott county, where he attended the local schools, and during 1884 he attended school in Booneville, Spen- cer county, Indiana. In 1886, when the family moved to Florida, he apprenticed himself to the printer's trade, and was em- ployed for a time on the Belleview (Florida) Blade, and later with the establishment of Ogden Brothers & Company of Knoxville, Tennessee. Returning to Florida in 1895, he hegan the publication of the Belleview News- Letter, which he conducted two years. For six years he was engaged in farming in Spencer county, Indiana, and in 1907 came to the lead belt of Missouri and bought the Desloge Sun. He conducts this as an inde- pendent paper, and has made it an organ of influence and of news.

In 1901 Mr. Abshier was married in Spencer county to Miss Delta Belle Haynes, a daughter of T. K. Haynes, a prosperous farmer of that locality. They are the parents

B. N. VARDELL. One of the very success- ful men of Dunklin county who began here when the country was a wilderness and whose only capital was personal integrity and in- dustry is Mr. B. N. Vardell, near Senath. Born in Tennessee August 13, 1851, and reared there, but deprived of any consider- able schooling by the war, he came alone to Dunklin county in 1874, and had neither money nor friends. In the course of years he has acquired both, and along with it the respect of all who have watched the industry and good management which he has dis- played.

During the first year he worked on the farm of J. C. McClane, and then bought from his employer forty acres for three hundred dollars. It was partly improved and he lived on it for a time and sold it, and with the proceeds bought another forty that is part of his present estate. He built him a home and lived there for about ten years. In 1876 he married Miss Almira Horner, of one of the old families of this county: She owned in all one hundred and sixty acres, and from their joint possessions and subsequent good management they have gained a position among the well-to-do people of the county. Some of the land which he bought from time to time is now worth thirty-five times what he gave for it. In 1897 he moved to his present residence, this being the second home he has built. He and his wife now own three hundred and twenty acres, well improved and highly cultivated. He himself farms only about one hundred acres, and the rest is worked by tenants, there being four tenant houses on his farm. In the early days while he and his wife were gradually getting ahead, times were hard and prices of supplies very high in proportion to what they got for their crops. For a number of years the nearest railroad point was Malden, forty miles away, and in those days they had flour bread but once a week.

In politics he is a Democrat and he and his family are Methodists. The children are as follows : Drew, a resident of Dunklin county ; Benjamin, a farmer of Dunklin county ; Amanda, at home; Floyd and Virgil, at home.

JOHN I. MARSHALL. Though only forty- five years old, Mr. J. I. Marshall has a record of seventeen years of public service in Iron

W. F. SHELTON, SR.

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county. His father, Benjamin M. Marshall, was born near New York city, but came to St. Francois county when a young man and followed farming there until his death, in 1887. His mother, Mary (Wood) Marshall, is a native of Tennessee, from which state she came with her parents to St. Francois county when only one year old. She is now eighty- three years old and still a citizen of Missouri.

John I. Marshall was born November 8, 1866, in St. Francois county, and was one of twelve children, of whom four are still living : Nannie E. (Sills), of College City, Cali- fornia; Sarah (Cook), of St. Louis; W. F., of Los Angeles, California; and the present sheriff of Iron county.

Mr. Marshall has lived in Ironton since he was ten years of age. He attended the public schools of this city, and was later city mar- shal. For ten years he served as deputy sheriff, and when sheriff Polk was killed in 1905 he was selected to fill out the term and he has been twice elected to the office. He has four deputies : D. B. Blanton and George W. Marshall of Ironton; A. L. Daniels of Des Arc; and W. E. Westerman, of the western part of the county. On the 30th of May, 1905, Sheriff Marshall headed the posse which cap- tured the Spaugh Brothers, who had shortly before murdered Sheriff John W. Polk. The Spaugh Brothers are now serving life sen- tences at the penitentiary at Jefferson City.

Mr. Marshall's political allegiance belongs to the Democratic party. His religious pref- erence is for the church of which his vener- able mother is still an active member, the Methodist. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Ironton, and also of the Modern Woodmen of America.

WELLS R. HARKEY. A worthy represen- tatative of an honored pioneer of Dunklin county, and a highly prosperous agricul- turist of the town of Senath, W. R. Harkey has been actively identified with the develop- ment and advancement of the farming inter- ests of this part of Missouri. He was born April 2, 1865, on a Dunklin county farm, and was educated in the Harkey school. His mother died when he was a lad of twelve years, but his father married for his second wife a woman who proved an admirable step- mother, and he continued his residence under the parental roof-tree until after attaining his majority.

When ready to establish himself in a home

of his own Mr. Harkey bought forty acres of land, borrowing the money for which to pay for it, and by dint of hard labor suc- ceeded in improving a good farm from the forest. He erected a comfortable dwelling house, and put up other necessary farm buildings. At the end of eight years he had paid off the indebtedness on that tract of land, and later sold it at an advance. At the death of his father, in 1887, Harkey bought out the interests of the remaining nine heirs in the old home farm in Senath, and has now a fine farm of one hundred and ninety-eight acres. During the years that he has occupied this place he has greatly improved the prop- erty, having entirely renovated the buildings, putting up new wherever necessary, and placed the land in a good yielding condition, his homestead being now one of the most at- tractive and valuable in the vicinity, the land being worth fully one hundred and twenty- five dollars an acre. He has a well-bearing peach orchard, and a good apple orchard, and raises some small fruits and berries. He raises some stock, which he sells to local buy- ers, raising about seventy-five hogs a year, and handling some mules.

Mr. Harkey is a Democrat in politics, and fraternally is a member of Senath Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America. He is a Methodist in religion, attending Harkey's Chapel, which was named in memory of his father. He likewise belongs to the Farmers' Union, which owns a grist mill and cotton gin in Senath, and in these he is a stockholder.

Mr. Harkey has been three times married. He married first, at Nesbit, Dunklin county, Alice Strauther, who lived but five years after their marriage. Three children were born to them, namely : William F., a resident of Arkansas, married Mary Mautsanger; Bertie; and a child that died in infancy. By his second wife, whose maiden name was Ella Dean, Mr. Harkey has one child, who lived but six months. Mr. Harkey married for his third wife, in 1894, Eva Bishop, who was born in Arkansas in 1875, and of their union eight children have been born, namely : Hu- bert (who assists his father in the care of the farm), Lillian, Lena, Charles W., Cleva B., Walton, Bishop and Paul.

W. F. SHELTON. In the death of W. F. Shelton, Dunklin county lost its foremost citi- zen, its wealthiest one and thousands have lost a friend who can with difficulty be replaced.

Vol. II-8

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He was broad minded, liberal, charitable and at all times just. He carved out his own career and he was a skilltul sculptor.

William Franklin Shelton was born in Perry county, Tennessee, July 5, 1838. His parents, Enoch and Tabitha (Brown) Shel- ton, were of North Carolina birth and in 1843 they moved to Cape Girardeau county and after a few years moved to Dunklin county, near Kennett, where both of them died, he in 1848, two years after they moved to Dunklin county. Mr. and Mrs. Enoch Shelton had six children, William F., John, Garvis and Joseph, a little girl who died in infancy and Mary Jane, who married Mr. McMullin, of Water Valley. She died in 1909. William Franklin Shelton was only ten years old when his father died and from that time he began to work on a farm, attending school for four months in the winter. He worked as a cotton picker, as a farm hand, as a trapper and laborer, anything that he could get to earn a little money he tried. In the fifties he made a trip to Pike's Peak and spent some time in the Indian Territory. He made his head- quarters with the late Captain Marsh, going there when he was not working at too great a distance. When the Civil war broke out Wil- liam was one of the first to volunteer his serv- ices to the Confederate army. He was a mem- ber of General Jackson's militia and of Com- pany D, Walker's Missouri Infantry for less than a year. After the war was ended he came back to Captain Marsh's and he then be- gan to sell goods. His first business venture was as a merchant with a small stock of goods bought with the proceeds of a tract of land which Captain Marsh had given him. He put his goods into a building which he had moved from east of where the Frisco depot now stands to the north side of the square, near the Shelton and Ward store of to-day. Later he had a store where his office was afterward located until his death. Then he had his store on the opera house corner and again at the location of the present Shelton store. At one time, in 1876, he was a partner of James P. Walker in the mercantile business at Dexter. It would be impossible to name the many enterprises with which Mr. Shelton was connected-gins, mills and other ventures. He had wonderful business and executive ability and was always self possessed, though quiet in his speech. Ile had not had the ad- vantage of much schooling but he was a great reader and had a most wonderfully clear and retentive mind, rarely forgetting anything he

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 21

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802