USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 4
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Mr. Ruether first became identified with public affairs of Washington when he was chosen a member of the council, and in that capacity he served for two terms. In 1908 the Republicans made him their candidate for mayor and he was elected to the office. His services were of such satisfactory character
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that the people re-elected him two years later. During his regime the matter of mak- ing new contracts with the water company and the electric company for service came up for rearrangement, and new franchises were finally granted to each upon favorable terms to the city. A five year contract was made with the water company and a ten year ar- rangement was effected with the light com- pany. The purchase of a roller for the streets also marked the beginning of more substantial street improvements under his ad- ministration. It has been a progressive administration, in truth.
Mayor Ruether was happily married in September, 1897, in St. Louis, Missouri, Mrs. Louisa Hinnch, a native of that county and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fink, becoming his wife. They have three daughters, Hilda, Frederica and Lucile.
Save for his connection with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, Mr. Ruether is not a fraternity man. His residence of a dozen years in Washington has entitled him to a place among the capable, law-abiding and law-enforcing citizens, and his selection for the chief magistrate is only one manifestation of the general confidence reposed in him.
CLARENCE M. SWAN. As the hope of any community lies in its young men, Bollinger county is particularly fortunate in possess- ing a fine, enterprising young citizenship, and among the prominent and highly respected members of the younger generation is Clar- ence Marvin Swan, who is successfully en- gaged in general agriculture and stock rais- ing. Mr. Swan was born on the eleventh day of February, 1884, in the western part of the county which still claims his residence, and is a son of John William and Sophia Catherine (Sitze) Swan, natives of Missouri. The paternal grandfather was Abraham Swan, who lived at Wittenberg, Perry coun- ty, Missouri.
Clarence M. Swan has two brothers living: Charles A., born May 20, 1882, associated in operating the farm; and Earl M. Swan, born December 27, 1892, resides with the parents at Cape Girardeau and is attending the nor- mal there.
Mr. Swan was reared upon the homestead of his father and under the elder gentleman's tutelage became familiar with the various de- partments of agriculture. He attended the public schools and eventually entered the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Mis-
souri, which institution he attended two and a half years, until 1905. He then took up farming and cultivates his father's large property of six hundred and forty acres, he receiving a large share of the profits. He employs up-to-date agricultural methods and the result has been most satisfactory. In ad- dition to general farming he engages in stock raising and buys some stock each year.
Mr. Swan became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts when, on October 9, 1907, he established an independent household by his marriage to Miss Kitty Shetley, daughter of M. James and Jennie (Whitener) Shetley, the father a native of North Carolina and the mother a daughter of Missouri. They share their attractive home with one child, Beryl, born in 1908. Mr. Swan is in har- mony with the policies advanced by the Dem- ocratie party and he and his wife are con- sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
J. F. FERRELL is one of the prominent farmers of Dunklin county. If there is one life more than another where there is room for the exercise of a man's intelligence it is the life of a farmer. It used to be thought that agricultural pursuits did not require much brains, but now men are of the opinion that if a farmer is to get out of the soil all that it is capable of producing, he must use his head as well as his muscles. If proof of this statement were needed it can readily be obtained by considering two farmers who own the same amount of land, with similar eli- matie and other conditions; the one will pro- duce nearly twice as much as the other, and yet they both put the same amount of labor on the land, the difference is that the one brings his mind to bear on every phase of his work. while the other expects his muscles to accomplish everything. Mr. Ferrell is one of that class of farmers who uses both head and muscles, the result being a productive farm.
J. F. Ferrell was born on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee, March 25, 1870, and his father was a mechanic of recognized ability. When J. F. had just passed his third birth- day the family took up their residence in Greene county, Arkansas, and the eight years which succeeded their migration were among the most eventful in the entire life of J. F., as they contained his elementary educational training. the death of his father and his mother and his removal to Missouri, in com-
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pany with his uncle and his oldest sister. The little party of three located near Ken- nett, having walked the entire distance from their home in Greene county, Arkansas, in one day. The uncle rented a tract of land and commenced farming operations, in which his niece and nephew assisted to the best of their abilities. When J. F. had reached the age of fourteen he severed home ties and commenced to carve his own career, beginning by working for the different neighbors and receiving in return the sum of six dollars a month. It is hardly to be conceived how he could save any money on this small remuner- ation, but in 1890 he had enough ahead to justify him in renting a small farm, which he operated for ten years, then bought one hundred and forty acres of timber land, all of which he has cleared himself. Later he sold forty acres of this tract and now owns one hundred acres, on which he has built a seven roomed house and two barns, one sixty feet square and the other forty by fifty feet. Of his hundred acres seventy are under cul- tivation and his crop consists principally of corn, besides considerable cotton.
In the month of October, 1890, the same year that Mr. Ferrell rented his little farm, he married Miss Henrietta Robinson, a native of Kennett. Five years later, October 6, 1895, their son, De Witt, was born, and in February, 1900, before the little boy had reached his fifth birthday, the mother died. In 1901 his father introduced a new mother into the home, in the person of Miss Mollie Shelton, who became Mrs. J. F. Ferrell in that year. She was born in 1870, in Pemi- scot county, her parents being old settlers in this section of Missouri. In the course of time three children were born to this union: Myrtle. whose birth occurred December 8, 1903; Ira, born September 8, and Pearl, born April 8, 1907.
Mr. Ferrell is a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows of Kennett and of the Farmers' Union. In polities he is a Re- publican, believing that the Republican plat- form contains the best elements of good gov- ernment. When, at the age of fourteen, Mr. Ferrell started out in life he was absolutely without capital other than that of a good constitution and habits of industry ; he did not even possess much of an education, vet he has achieved success, by his own unaided efforts. He has realized, however, the ad- vantages of a good education, and is giving his children the best advantages that the
region affords. He has many friends in Dunklin county-friends who have known him from the time he first came into the neighborhood, who have watched him strng- gle in his efforts to succeed, and who have seen him arise victorious.
FRANKLIN W. BRICKEY. The Brickey fam- ily has had a leading part in the business development of that part of southeast Mis- souri included in Ste. Genevieve and Jeffer- son counties for nearly three quarters of a century. Three generations have been iden- tified with the affairs of Brickey's Landing, in the former county, of which Franklin Wolcut, of this sketch, the widely known citizen of Festus, is a native.
Mr. Brickey was born at that place on the 16th of July, 1844, a son of John Compton. The father was a native of Potosi, Missouri, born on the 16th of February, 1816, and he spent his boyhood in that place, where the grandfather was a school teacher and keeper of a small store. When he had reached an age at which he could be entrusted with a team. John C. commenced to haul lead ore to Selma on the Mississippi River, and at the age of nineteen found employment in the office of J. M. White, of Selma. In 1838, when twenty-two years of age, he moved from Selma to Briekey's Landing, where he opened a small store and wood yard for the river trade and steamboats. The elder Mr. Brickey was carried along in the second great tide of emigrants to the Pacific coast, spending the years from 1851 to 1853 in Cal- ifornia. He then returned to Brickey's Landing, engaged iu general merchandise, and in 1869 erected a flour mill in the famil- iar home town. He sold his business in 1874 to his son. F. W. Brickey, and in 1888 moved to Festus, where he resided, partially retired from business and industrial life, until his death, January 15, 1903.
John C. Brickey was a Democrat of the old school and a stanch member of the Methodist church, South. In 1840 he married Miss Mary Carpenter, of Rush Tower, Jefferson, and the two offsprings of their union were Eliza M. (Mrs. Aubuchow) and Franklin W., of this biography. Mrs. Mary Brickey died in 1844, and about a year later the widower married his first wife's sister, Miss Emily Carpenter, by whom he had fourteen chil- dren. Nine of this family are still living.
F. W. Brickey secured his early education in various country schools of Jefferson, Ste.
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Genevieve and St. Francois counties. He also completed one term at the Ste. Genevieve Academy. At the organization of the En- rolled Militia of Missouri in 1863, he joined a company and was elected its first lieutenant, but before he entered active service was ar- rested and held under bond until the close of the Civil war. During that period, in 1863-4, he operated a saw mill in Ste. Gene- vieve county, and in December, 1865, pur- chased a store at Glasgow City, Illinois, con- ducting the business for about seven years. For a short time he was similarly engaged at Cross Timbers, Hickory county, and then moved to De Soto, Jefferson county, where he continued to conduct a good mercantile business until 1874. Mr. Brickey then bought his father's store and mill at the Landing, of which he was the proprietor un- til 1885, or the year of his coming to Festus. At this place he purchased the plant which he has since operated with such profit and success under the name of the Festus Roller Mills.
Mr. Brickey has been president of the Citizen's Bank of Festus for several years, has served as president of the local School Board, and thoroughly demonstrated his ca- pacity as a thorough-going and high-minded citizen. He is a Democrat and identified with Masonry as a Knight Templar. Mar- ried in 1889 to Miss Nettie E. Davis, he is the father of four sons-Norval Wolcott, Franklin Compton, Paul Ashland and Ray- mond Davis Brickey.
DR. PHILBERT R. WILLIAMS, the prominent physician of Cape Girardeau, is as universally respected as he is known. In these days of specialization it is a relief to find a physician who is a general practitioner. Dr. Williams is as fully qualified to perform a surgical operation as he is to steer a patient through a slow case of typhoid fever. His personality is such that his mere presence serves as a medicine; his attitude is just sympathetic enough to convey the assurance of sincerity and at the same time is cheerful enough to elevate the spirits of the sick one.
He was born in Cape Girardeau county, October 20, 1856. His father, Francis M. Williams, was a native of Cape Girardeau county also, having been born near Jackson. His whole life was spent in the county and he died here at the advanced age of eighty- five. He had been a farmer all his life, but he retired from active work about twenty
years before his death. His wife was Char- lotte Randall, a native of Cape Girardeau county, the daughter of Jeremiah Randall, who had come to southeastern Missouri with his father; they were among the early set- tlers in the county. Mrs. Williams was sixty- nine years old at the time of her death. Of her family of eight children only four are living at the present time, the Doctor being the eldest of the family. Isaac S. Williams, father of Francis H. and grandfather of Philbert R. was a native of Kentucky, of Welsh descent. He was one of the pioneers of southeastern Missouri. He represented Cape Girardeau in the legislature, riding on horse-back to the capital.
Philbert R. Williams attended the public school of Cape Girardeau and the state nor- mal. He had made up his mind that he wanted to be a physician, but he did not have the money needed to attend the university, at the time he finished his course at the state normal. He, therefore, went to work in a drug store, where he would have the oppor- tunity to learn something about medicines, at the same time he studied most diligently in his spare time and saved up every dollar he could spare to pay his college expenses. He entered the St. Louis Medical College in 1876, graduating in 1878. After he had obtained his degree he located at Kelso, Scott county, Missouri, where he was in practice for twenty- eight years. In December, 1905, he came to Cape Girardeau, where he has been in prac- tice ever since. He is a member of the South- eastern Missouri Medical Society and of the Cape Girardeau local society.
In 1879 the Doctor married Mary S. Har- ris, the daughter of John Harris, who was a Welshman and came to America when he was a young man. He settled in Cape Girardeau, where his daughter Mary was born. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have two sons, Leroy J. liv- ing at Fort Scott, Kansas, and is manager of the Western Union telegraph office there. Paul R. expects to follow in his father's foot- steps and is attending the St. Louis Univer- sity, being a junior in the medical depart- ment.
The Doctor is a member of the Masonic order, having high standing in that organiza- tion. He is a life long resident of south- eastern Missouri, his family on both sides be- ing prominent in the early history of the state. Considering the short time Dr. Wil- liams has been in the city of Cape Girardeau, he has been remarkably successful, and yet it
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is not remarkable when the personality of the Doctor is taken into consideration. He inspires confidence, making his patients feel that he is a true friend. He finds many op- portunities of doing good, going about from place to place, but his kind acts are per- formed in such an unobtrusive way that none but the recipients of his help know anything about these deeds.
THOMAS H. HAM. Widely and favorably known as one of Senath's prosperous agri- culturists, Thomas H. Ham is numbered among the citizens of good repute and high standing, and is well worthy of representa- tion in a work of this character. Born No- vember 30, 1863, one mile east of his present home, he has spent almost his entire life in Dunklin county, although as a boy of ten years or thereabout he lived for a year in Iron county, Missouri, and two years in Wayne county.
His father, Thomas F. Ham, was born in Tennessee, but was brought up in Pemiscot county, Missouri. In 1862 he made his way to Dunklin county, and soon after fell a vic- tim to the charms of Mary Harkey, to whom he was married on January 4, 1863. He im- mediately bought a tract of wild land near Senath, and began the pioneer lahor of hew- ing a farm from the wilderness, clearing and improving a part of the land now owned and occupied by his son Thomas. During the Civil war he in common with his neighbors suffered untold hardships and privations, and even in later years often found it hard to make both ends meet. Provisions were high, and Thomas H. Ham remembers that when a boy his father sent a man to Cape Girar- deau to buy a barrel of flour, which cost him fifteen dollars there, but cost ten dollars more to get it to Senath. At twenty-five dol- lars a barrel it is no wonder that he and his family, as well as their neighbors, had flour bread hnt once a week.
The oldest of a family of six boys and six girls, of whom four boys and four girls are now living. Thomas H. HIam remained at. home assisting his father, who was disabled while serving as a soldier in the Confederate army, in the care of the home farm, continu- ing thus employed until his marriage. Be- ginning life then for himself, Mr. Ham, who owned a team but had no other resources, rented land for two years, and carried on general farming with good results. He then purchased a tract of land lying cast of
Senath, and after living there for five or six years bought his present farm, which was the parental homestead, buying the interest of the remaining heirs in the estate, and now owning one hundred and ten acres of rich and fertile land. About forty acres of it was covered with timber when he purchased it, but he has cleared it, and has made other noteworthy improvements on the place, hav- ing erected a substantial house and barn, and all the other necessary farm buildings, his place comparing favorably in point of im- provements and appointments with any in the community.
Politically Mr. Ham is an uncompromising Democrat, and active in party ranks. In the Forty-fourth General Assembly he repre- sented Dunklin county, and during his term in the State Legislature served on the Swamp Lands and Drainage Committee; on the Com- mittee on Penitentiaries and Reform Schools; on the Committee of Agriculture, and was connected with other committees of impor- tance. He has served in various county and judicial conventions, and was a delegate to the Congressional Convention that nominated W. D. Vandevere for Congressman from the fourteenth district of Missouri. Fraternally Mr. Ham is a member of Senath Lodge, No. 513, A. F. & A. M., and of Caruth Lodge, I. O. O. F. Religiously he is a valued mem- ber of Harkey's Chapel, Methodist Episcopal church, South, and has been superintendent of its Sunday school.
Mr. Ham married, November 25. 1886, in Stoddard county, Missouri, near Asherville, Annie L. McKay, who was born in Pemiscot county, Missouri, April 3, 1867, and prior to her marriage taught school several terms in Dunklin county, in which she has spent the greater part of her life. Mr. and Mrs. Ham are the parents of eight children, namely : Lilly, wife of T. E. Selby, of Dunklin county ; Edith, wife of E. T. Tucker, prin- cipal of the schools in Cardwell, Missouri; Olin; Annie; Belle; Eure; Bennie; and Price. Mr. and Mrs. Selby have two sons, Wyman and Byron, aged five and one and one-half years, respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have two children, Winnis and Zaner, aged three and one years, respectively.
THOMAS HUSKEY is one of the prosperous farmers residing in Lorance township. Most people succeed better as emploves than as employers. which is doubtless the reason why so many buy farms and lose them. They are
Thomas, St, Ham.
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unable to make them pay, not because they do not labor enough, but because they do not use their brains sufficiently. Brought up on the farm, Mr. Huskey has found it impossi- ble to leave the agricultural life permanently, although for years he was connected with the industrial progress of Southeastern Missouri. He has now responded to the call of the land and returned to the simple farm life, not be- cause he could not succeed in business, but because he felt impelled to return to nature.
Born on the Sth day of June, 1858, in Sevier county, Tennessee, Mr. Huskey is a son of William and Mary (Shults) Huskey, natives of Sevier county. Father Huskey was reared on a farm in Tennessee; received his education in that state and there married, by which union he became the father of five children,-John, Thomas, Annie, Mattie and Sarah. John Huskey was sheriff of Bollinger county, Missouri, from 1888 to 1892. In 1862 Mr. Huskey enlisted in the Union army, serving with the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry until September, 1865, when he re- ceived his honorable discharge. During his army life he had been a participant in many closely contested battles; was present at the siege of Knoxville and many other important conflicts. On his return to the life of a civil- ian he found himself a widower, as his wife had been summoned to her last rest during the progress of the war. In 1866 he married Miss Mary Feasel, who bore him four chil- dren,-Laura, David, Willie and Hattie. In 1871 he, his wife and seven children (two having died) migrated to Missouri, settled on a farm four miles north of Marble Hill, Bollinger county, and there the family was increased by the birth of four more children, -Baxter B., Loie, Oscar and Lulu. Four other children were born to Mr. and Mrs. William Huskey, but they are all dead. Father Huskey farmed in Bollinger county (at different places), until 1897, when he went to Cape Girardeau county, and lived at Cape Girardeau until the 25th day of July, 1910; he then went to Seattle, Washington, remained there for nine months, and returned to Bollinger county in April, 1911.
When Thomas Huskey was a very small bov his mother died and his father remar- ried. The first thirteen years of his life were passed in his native county in Tennessee, where he attended school and learned how to perform those duties which are required of a boy who is brought up on a farm. In 1871 he accompanied his family to Missouri; there
he received further educational training, and after terminating his schooling he remained on his father's farm until he attained his ma- jority, when he became engaged in the timber business. In 1884 he settled on a tract of land in Lorance township, commenced to work on the wild prairie and bring it under cultivation and he built a house, into which he moved in the month of June, 1886. He re- mained on his farm until 1894, at which time he was elected to office and moved to Marble Hill, where he resided two years. He was for three years superintendent of the Pioneer Cooperage Company plant-in 1906, 1907 and 1908. On the 8th day of August, 1908, he went back to the farm in Lorance town- ship, where he has remained ever since, culti- vating his hundred acres of good farm land.
On December 25, 1884, the time that Mr. Huskey moved to his farm for the first time, he was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Bailey, whose birth had occurred in Bollinger county November 20, 1862. She is a daugh- ter of John Bailey, a native of Bollinger county, and Mary (Chandler) Bailey, born in Caswell county, North Carolina. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huskey, -May, born July 6, 1886, married A. M. Barrett of Lorance township. Mrs. Barrett was a teacher in the Public Schools of Bollin- ger county before marriage. Ray, whose birth occurred March 22, 1888, was killed by a train when he was twenty-one years of age. Nellie, whose nativity took place on the 10th day of September, 1891, married Frank Whitten, son of attorney Whitten, April 26, 1911, of Paris, Texas, but who is now an electrician at Ft. Towson, Oklahoma. Mrs. Whitten was a teacher in the Central High School of Okla- homa at the time of her marriage. Thomas, who was born March 15, 1893, is now em- ployed by the railroad when not assisting his father on the farm. He graduated from the public schools of Bollinger county in 1911.
In a fraternal way Mr. Huskey is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in religious connection is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has a large circle of friends in Bollinger county, where he has spent so many years of his life.
ALBERT BLAINE, one of Piedmont's most prominent and popular citizens, is a Mis- sourian, also the son of Missourians, and his two grandfathers were pioneers in the state. His paternal grandfather was a farmer and an iron worker who came from Pennsylvania
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and settled in Washington county, the birth- place of Albert Blaine of this review. The maternal grandfather, Lewis Simms, went from Pennsylvania to Alabama and from there came to Missouri. He took up his abode in St. Francois county, where he en- tered land and operated a tan yard, manu- facturing leather goods. He was very suc- cessful in both his farming and in his other business. His daughter, Mary Simms, was born near Flat River, December 25, 1817, and died August 9, 1899. She married Al- bert Blaine, who was born January 1, 1815, at Eddis Grove, Kentucky, on June 15, 1843, and brought up a family of eight children. Four of these are still living in Missouri: W. H. Blaine resides in Piedmont, which town is also the home of the subject of this review; Martha is the widow of Harrison Wallace, of Potosi, Missouri, and Sara is Mrs. W. J. Slais, of Potosi. The father, Albert, Senior, was reared in Washington county, Missouri. He was apprenticed to a black- smith and followed that trade and mercantile business in Potosi until his death, September 8, 1860. He was a Democrat in politics and a member of the United Presbyterian church.
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