USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 29
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All the members of the Pirtle families, whether residing at Frederickstown or Mine LaMotte are actively and widely associated with the social and religious activities of their home communities, and are therefore strong factors in the higher progress as well as the material advance of that section of South- east Missouri. Both parents are members of the Baptist church. The mother is a member of the Rebekahs while Mr. Pirtle is iden- tified with the Arch degrees of Masonry and his wife with the Eastern Star. Two of their sons are active members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and one is connected with the Rebekahs. The leading family traits are, in fact, sociability, reliability and moral- ity, which traits have been the foundation planks of the only true Americanism.
CHARLES J. TUAL. One of the leading rep- resentatives of his profession in southeastern Missouri is Charles J. Tual, of Ironton, an architect and builder of extensive operations. He is an able exponent of the progressive spirit and strong initiative ability which have caused this place to forge so rapidly for- ward and he has here attained a position of prominence and influence as a business man and as a loyal and progressive citizen. Not only is his executive capacity of the highest character, but he has undeniable talent in the line to which he has devoted his energies, and the buildings which are the creation of his original ideas are artistic and wholly satisfac- tory. Mr. Tual has been engaged in his pres- ent work in Ironton for the past ten years, and his business has grown so steadily that he now employs from ten to twenty-five men. Among the buildings which he planned and constructed are the R. D. Lewis Building, of Arcadia, the I. G. Whitworth Building and the William Trauernicht building. In 1911 he made the plans and erected the fine taber- nacle of the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Ar-
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cadia, with a seating capacity of from one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred. This is a steel frame building, with a tile roof-a model of its kind. Mr. Tual operates in various other points in Mis- souri, such as Potosi aud Hornellville.
He whose name inaugurates this review is a native son of the state, his birth having oc- curred at Arcadia, April 14, 1870, the son of Ezra C. and Vienna N. (Evans) Tual. He began upon his present occupation at the age of twenty-one years and has continued thus engaged except for an interim of eight years, from 1893 to 1900 when, in Idaho and Mon- tana, he tried out his fortunes in placer min- ing. While in the far west he also engaged as a contractor and superintended the erec- tion of several important buildings at Butte, Montana. He was very successful there as in the other cities in which he has worked. He has encountered his fairest fortunes in Ironton, however, but his success has been the logical outcome of the fine qualities above referred to.
Mr. Tual was married July 10, 1901, Miss Anna Kendal, daughter of Charles Kendal, becoming his wife. Mr. Kendal came to Iron Mountain about the year 1870, there engag- ing in mercantile business, and later, upon coming to Ironton, he opened a business of the same kind. Mr. and Mrs. Tual have one daughter, Arline, born June 27, 1903, at Ironton. They are highly esteemed members of society and their residence is one of the handsomest and most modern in Ironton and most modern in Ironton. This newly com- pleted abode of nine rooms is made of con- erete block and is fully equipped with all the modern improvements, including steam heat. It is located on Knob street and is the centre of a gracious hospitality. In politics Mr. Tual is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and is interested in all matters of pub- lic moment.
The father of the foregoing, Ezra C. Tual, deceased, was a well-known and highly re- spected citizen of Iron county. This gentle- man, whose demise occurred July 22, 1908, at his home in Arcadia, was born in Burling- ton county, New Jersey, February 19, 1829, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Crock- ford) Tual, both of whom lived and died in New Jersey. Samuel Tual was a carpenter by trade. Ezra C. was reared in his native state and received a good common school education, but the more important part of his culture came from other sources, for he trav-
eled extensively and was a great reader and observer, who all his life enjoyed the riches of a well-stored mind. He traveled in South America and many other foreign countries and in foreign climes, as well as in New Jersey and Missouri, engaged in his trade, which was that of a blacksmith and wagon- maker. After his globe-trotting he returned to America and spent some years in the mid- dle western states, such as Iowa, finally locat- ing in Arcadia, Missouri, in 1860, and there for years conducting a shop. In 1864 he re- moved to Montana and for two years and in 1876 went to the Black Hills, South Dakota, where he engaged in mining and other busi- ness for another period of time. He subse- quently returned to Missouri, where he made his home until his death, making several visits back to New Jersey. He was a Repub- lican in political conviction and no citizen was more highly regarded or better liked. He was married, January 29, 1863, to Miss Vienna Evans, who survives him and makes her home at Arcadia. Mrs. Tual, who enjoys the affection of countless friends, was born at Farmington, Saint Francois county, Mis- souri, August 29, 1842, and is a daughter of George F. and Columbia F. (Brinker) Evans. Her father was born in Belleview Valley, Washington county, Missouri, Aug- ust 21, 1819, and died March 9, 1895. He was a carpenter and builder and resided for some years at Farmington, eventually remov- ing to Crawford county. He latterly was identified with mercantile pursuits. He died at an advanced age at Berryman, Missouri, while en route to Steelville. His parents were William and Malala (George) Evans, natives of Virginia and Tennessee respect- ively. Both accompanied their parents to this state in youth and married here. Throughout a great part of his active life William Evans taught school. The Evans family is one of the oldest in America, no less than nine generations having been repre- sented in the land of the stars and stripes. It is of Welsh origin. Mrs. Ezra C. Tual came to Arcadia in 1858 and has made her home here in all the years following. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Mr. and Mrs. Ezra C. Tual were the par- ents of the following five sons and two daughters: Selden Jerome, born November 4, 1863, a member of the mercantile firm of Tual Brothers, Arcadia. He married Blanche Hatton, now deceased, and has one son,
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Blanchard. George Evans, born August 21, 1866, is a conductor on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and resides at Newton, Kansas. He took as his wife Belle Duncan, of St. Louis, and they have twin sons, George and Robert. Fannie was born March 10, 1868, and died November 27, 1868. Charles J. is the immediate subject of this record. Elwood Collins, born January 21, 1871, is a member of the mercantile firm of Tual Brothers, of Arcadia. He married Cora M. Matkin, daughter of William Matkin, mem- tioned elsewhere in this work devoted to representative Missourians. They have three daughters,-Eugenia, Hazel and Julia, Grace, born December 5, 1873, is the wife of I. G. Whitworth, of whom more extended mention appears on other pages of this re- view. Welden J., born November 26, 1876, is an Arcadia citizen and is engaged in carpentry in the employ of his brother Charles J. He married Ada Palmer, of Iron- ton, and they have one daughter, Gladys M.
The mercantile firm of Tual Brothers, at Arcadia, was organized in 1899 and is an im- portant concern. They carry a heavy general stock of groceries and merchandise and also hay, corn, bran, mixed feed and the like. The Tual Brothers are owners of both store and stock.
Ezra C. Tual was postmaster of Arcadia in the administration of President MeKinley, and he was succeeded by his son, of the firm of Tual Brothers. The office was located in the store for some five years.
ANDREW PARKER MACKLEY, of Desloge, is one of the most prominent financiers and business men of the Southeast Missouri lead belt, and through his ownership and execu- tive management exercises an important in- fluence in various lines of business in this state and elsewhere.
A native of Southeast Missouri, he was born in St. Genevieve county, August 7, 1874, was reared on a farm, obtaining his educa- tion in public schools and at Carlton College in Farmington. At the age of twenty-one he entered educational work for three years, teaching in the public schools of Kinsey and Bloomsdale. For one summer during this time he was assistant cashier in the St. Louis office of the Prudential Life Insurance Com- pany. He then took charge of the postof- fice at Desloge for Postmaster A. T. Spald- ing, continuing in that capacity four years and a half. In January, 1903, Mr. Mackley
became cashier of the Bank of Desloge, a position in which he has acquired the confi- dence of a large business public and has made the bank one of the strongest institutions in this part of the state. He has been continu- ously in this position with the exception of five months in 1910, when he had charge of the Hopewell Plantation in Louisiana and the Bank of Monroe, that state. He is president and owns a fourth interest in the Hopewell plantation, which is capitalized at one hun- dred thousand dollars. In addition to lands near Desloge and town property, Mr. Mack- ley is interested in Arkansas and Texas real estate. He was a former president of the Lead Belt Telephone Company.
His father was Hiram Parker Mackley, who was born in Calloway county, Ohio, July 20, 1845. When he was seven years old he was taken by his father, a carpenter by trade, to Keokuk, Iowa, and in 1855 the family home was established in St. Genevieve county, this state, where he grew to man- hood and lived until 1881. He then bought a farm in Marks valley, near Farmington, and lived there until his death, September 20, 1910. In politics he was a Republican. He married, March 10, 1868, Miss Elizabeth Hipes, daughter of Bart. Hipes, a farmer of St. Genevieve county. She died in 1903, hav- ing been the mother of ten children, of whom Andrew was the third and oldest son.
Andrew P. Mackley is a member of the Missouri Athletic Club of St. Louis, is a Scottish Rite Mason, and member of the Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, South. In politics he is Republican. On May 26, 1897, he married Miss Minnie Doughty, daughter of D. J. Doughty, of Farmington. Of the three chil- dren born to their marriage, one is living, Ann Elizabeth.
J. G. BURCHITT, M. D. In professional distinctions Dr. J. G. Burchitt, of Cardwell, easily stands in the foremost rank of the medical profession of Southeast Missouri. He enjoys what is probably the largest prac- tice in southern Dunklin county, and as a doctor and citizen is well known throughout this portion of the state. A man of large in- terests and versatile in his accomplishments, he has done much of real public service for his community. In recognition of his prac- tical work in the promotion of the arts and science, the Royal Society of Arts recently
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bestowed upon him a membership in that body, this honor coming to him unsolicited, and he is one of the two or three citizens of the state to be thus distinguished.
Dr. Burchitt is a native of Virginia, where he was born March 27, 1864. His early American ancestors were French Huguenots and among the earliest of that people to set- tle in the colony of South Carolina. His early education was acquired in the Richmond high school, two years in the military academy of Blacksburg, Virginia, and for his profes- sional training he entered the Louisville, Kentucky, Medical College, where he was a student three years, and then a year in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city. From 1886 to 1891 he was en- gaged in practice at Flagfork, Kentucky, and had a large practice in that small town. He then moved to Pleasureville in the same state, and there, in 1892, was married to Miss Maria Maddox. Her family was among the first settlers of Kentucky, her grandfather being considered the first settler of Dutch stock. Her old home is covered by a deed to which is attached the signature of Daniel Boone. Dr. Burchitt practiced at Pleasureville four years and then moved to Lexington. While there he was commissioned, in 1898, as nrst lieutenant and assistant surgeon in the army during the Spanish-American war. He ar- rived at Matanzas, Cuba, four days after the sixty U. S. volunteers had hauled down the Spanish flag in the sight of fifteen thousand hostile Spanish troops, that being on June 1, 1898. He was on detached duty as lieuten- ant and was in the field most of the time. He remained in Cuba until December, 1899, and on his return to the United States located in St. Louis for a short time.
In search of a place that would improve his own health, and having heard much of Southeast Missouri, in 1900 he came to Card- well with the intention of staying but a short time. He began practice and has been here ever since. He has been an efficient factor in improving the healthfulness of this country. At first malaria was almost endemic, but it has decreased to a remarkable degree in the recent years, partly because of the general development of the country and also because the people are better trained to fight off the disease. He was physician of the town dur- ing a smallpox scare, and has been the health officer of Cardwell throughout his residence here. He was also elected a member of the board of health of Dunklin county in 1904
and served seven years, the longest service by any one individual. During that time he secured the passage of a local law through the county court forbidding the sale of patent nostrums, and it is now enforced to some ex- tent. Dr. Burchitt has also been honored with the office of mayor of Cardwell for one term. He has prospered himself as well as helping the community to better prosperity. He is owner of a store and other property in Cardwell and also has property near Shelbyville, Kentucky.
Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite, St. Louis Cousistory, No. 1, a past master of the Masonic blue lodge at Cardwell, is captain of the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias, is past chief of the Tribe of Ben Hur, and is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Elks, the Hoo-Hoos and the Woodmen of the World. He is one of the two persons in Cardwell whose church affili- ations are Episcopalian.
THOMAS D. JONES, treasurer of Iron county, Missouri, is a member of a family well and favorably known not only in the county in which they reside but throughout southeastern Missouri. Mr. Jones has filled his important office with credit to himself and honor to his constituents and has the en- viable distinction of having made a clean rec- ord in politics, a far too infrequent oc- currence in this day of bribery and corrup- tion.
Mr. Jones' birth occurred on August 16, 1882, in the southern part of Iron county, near the town of Brunot, his parents being Solomon F. and Margaret (Stevenson) Jones, of whom more detailed mention will be made in succeeding paragraphs. They are the parents of ten children, four of whom are doctors, either of medicine or dental surgery. Dr. Charles H. Jones was graduated in the class of 1902 from the American Medical College, St. Louis, and he is now practicing medicine and surgery at Brunot, Missouri; Dr. Edward Jones, a graduate from the same college in the class of 1907, has established a good practice at Lilbourne, Missouri; Dr. Noah Jones was graduated from the Barnes Dental College, of St. Louis, Missouri, in the class of 1907, and is now located at Camp- bell, Missouri; Dr. George L. Jones, gradu- ating from the same college of dentistry in the class of 1911, has just established himself at Pigott, Arkansas; the next son, Owen, died
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at the age of seventeen years; Frank, the fifth son, has attended the Cape Girardeau normal school for two years and has also taught in Iron, Madison and New Madrid counties; the two youngest boys, Ray and Robert, are at home with their parents at Brunot; and the only daughter, Cora, is the wife of C. J. Russell of Brunot.
Thomas D. Jones was reared on his father's farm in Iron county, obtaining his elementary educational training in the public schools at Brunot. Following this he entered Concor- dia College in Wayne county, where he took up academic work and was graduated with the class of 1902. Immediately after his graduation he went to the normal school at Cape Girardeau, and after one year's work in that well-known institution he taught for half a dozen years in Madison and Iron coun- ties. On the 1st of January, 1907, he was elected to the office of treasurer of Iron county, then was re-elected to the same posi- tion and is now serving his second term.
In the year 1906, Mr. Jones was married to Miss Lulu Matkin, a native of Madison county, where her father, W. M. Matkin, was formerly county judge; he now makes his home in Iron county. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one son, Marvin. From his boyhood the subject has given unwavering allegiance to the traditions of the Democratic party and he is now one of the stanchest Democrats within the borders of the county. Frater- nally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- men of America; and in a religious way he holds membership with the Christian church. Considered from every viewpoint he is a man worthy of respect and esteem.
Solomon F. Jones, father of the foregoing, is one of the well-known and highly esteemed agriculturists, his well-cultivated farm of one hundred and ten acres being located some two miles north of Brunot. He is one of those loyal citizens who were born within the pleasant boundaries of Iron county and have paid it the highest compliment within their power by electing to remain here perma- nently. He was born in September, 1852, and is the son of Shadrach and Jane (King) Joues, natives of Tennessee, who came when young with their parents to Missouri. The family is of Welsh descent. Solomon F. was one of a family of nine children, of whom the following survive at the present time: William, a farmer, whose estate is situated near Brunot ; Thomas, of Reynolds county,
Missouri; Shadrack, of California; Nancy, now Mrs. Newton, of Arkansas; and the sub- ject. Henry and Elizabeth (Mrs. Stevenson) are deceased, the former having died when a young man and the latter when about fifty years of age.
Solomon F. Jones was reared near Brunot ; received his education in the subscription schools and when he left the parental roof- tree to begin his independent career it was as a farmer. He was united in marriage in 1872 to Miss Margaret Stevenson, born in Dent county, Missouri, in 1858, the daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Cox) Stevenson, hoth scions of pioneer Missouri families. In his political convictions Mr. Jones is a Dem- ocrat and he has warmly upheld the policies and principles of that party in which he be- lieves. Mrs. Jones is an earnest member of the Baptist church.
W. M. BLAYLOCK. Vigilant, active and en- ergetic, W. M. Blaylock is amply qualified for the responsible position he is filling as manager of the Kennett office of the Modern Gin Compress Company, of Little Rock, Arkansas, having charge of the company's southeastern Missouri interests. A native of Tennessee, he was born June 10, 1870, in Car- roll county, where he received his prelim- inary education. His father, Rev. J. M. Blaylock, a Baptist minister, came with his family to Dunklin county, Missouri, in 1884, and has since been here engaged in his min- isterial labors, being now a resident of Kennett.
Having completed his early studies in Mis- souri, W. M. Blaylock subsequently lived for a time in Tennessee, and was afterwards em- ployed by the firm for which he is now man- ager as a traveling salesman, selling gin and compress machinery, his territory covering parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Having served in that capacity two years, Mr. Blaylock assisted in building the gin and compress plant at Kennett, and has since had control of it.
The Modern Gin Compress Company, with its main office at Little Rock, Arkansas, has three plants in Dunklin county, Missouri, there being one at Kennett, one at Holcomb and another at Senath. Each plant has a gin compressing machine, the capacity of the three plants combined being from six thou- sand to seven thousand bales annually. The firm buys cotton of the local growers, gins and compresses it, and sells direct to English
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manufacturers at Manchester, England. A compressed bale of cotton is twenty-four inches by twenty-four inches, by forty-eight inches, and weighs from five hundred to six hundred pounds, requiring a pressure of from six hundred to six hundred and fifty tons on a twenty-inch hydraulic ram. The cotton thus baled can be delivered in Man- chester, England, for sixty-five cents per hundred weight, while in the ordinary bale it would cost that amount to send it to New Orleans. This company also manufactures gin and compress machinery at Little Rock, and are extensive dealers in cotton, operating in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The company has likewise established a wholesale and re- tail feed trade at Kennett, with a branch feed store at Senath, and has a factory for produc- ing corn feed productions, its business in this line being constantly increased and ex- tended. Mr. Blaylock employs in the Ken- nett plant from twenty-six to thirty men in the cotton season, while in summer he keeps six men busily employed in the feed plant.
Mr. Blaylock married, in 1889, Eliza C. Whittaker, a daughter of the late Rev. M. J. Whittaker, who was for many years one of the leading Baptist ministers of Dunklin county. Three children have been born of their union, namely: Aubrey C. (a book- keeper in the feed store), R. E., and Blanche. Mr. Blaylock is a regular attendant of the Baptist church, of which his wife is a consist- ent member. Politically he is affiliated with the Democratic party, but is not an active worker.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS WENOM. A popular and able young man, with a high record for executive efficiency, is Gustavus Adolphus Wenom, cashier of the Bank of Kimmswick and postmaster of the town since the year 1906. He is a native son of the type of which Kimmswick is justly proud, his birth having occurred within the pleasant boundaries of the place May 15, 1874. His father, the late John Wenom, one of Kimmswick's leading citizens, was born June 24, 1837, in Alsace- Lorraine, Germany, then France, and came with his parents, Florence and Fannie Wenom, and two brothers. Frank and Joseph. to America, landing in New York. in 1852, very appropriately on the Fourth of July, for they were all to become the most loyal and enthusiastic of American citizens. In September of the same year they took up their residence on a farm some three miles from
Kimmswick. The subject's grandfather was not to enjoy long residence in the new country, for he died in 1855, the grandmother surviving until 1868. The father became a member of Company A, of Colonel Rankin's regiment of enrolled militia, and continued as such during the progress of the Civil war. He was married previous to that date, Miss Catherine Miller, a native of Germany, be- coming his wife, January 12, 1859, and eight children were born to them, all but one sur- viving at the present time. They are as fol- lows: William; Ida, now Mrs. Koch; Katie, now Mrs. Schwantner; Oscar; Otto; Gus- tavus A., of this review; and John Jr.
John Wenom farmed until the year 1864, in which year he made a new departure by opening a meat market at Kimmswick and conducting it until 1881. Subsequent to that he engaged in the grain and insurance busi- ness and for sixteen years he worked as road superintendent, filling this important office with credit to himself and benefit and satis- faction to his neighbors. The length of time he held the position is sufficient to show how well he performed its duties and an elequent tribute to his worth and capacity. He held membership in the Fenton Farmers' Club and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. The first Mrs. Wenom died August 14, 1900, deeply regretted by the many who knew and loved her. On October 17, 1901, he con- tracted a second union, Mrs. Elizabeth Hirschfield becoming his wife and the mis- tress of his household. This worthy lady sur- vives him, making her home at Kimmswick, Missouri. Mr. Wenom was one of the lead- ing spirits in the promotion of the Bank of Kimmswick, and in this substantial monetary institution he was interested to a considerable extent as a stock-holder and director. He was a stanch Republican, at a time when Jef- ferson county was strongly Democratic, prov- ing that nothing but downright conviction influenced him. He was a man of strong character and ability, and the things he un- dertook to do he did well, doubtless the prin- cipal factor in his success. He was indeed a success in all the relations of life, and was a kind husband and indulgent and loving father. He was one of the self-made men and by indomitable purpose and energy over- came great obstacles. He came to the United States a stranger in a strange land. with a limited education and sadly handicapped by his ignorance of the language. but he was nothing daunted by these circumstances.
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