USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 49
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In politics Mr. Morris is aligned as a stal- wart in the ranks of the Democratic party, as previously stated, and he has served as a dele- gate to the County Democratic committee and to the Judicial Democratic State committee. In their religious faith he and his wife are devout members of the Christian church and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Mal- den Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is chancellor commander, in 1911. As a man he stands high in the estimation of his fellow citizens, while in the profession he has the admiration of the bar and the judiciary, and his cases are prosecuted with persistency and tenacity of purpose which defies all just cause for defeat.
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DR. T. S. COOPER was born in Perry county, Tennessee, in 1866, and lived there sixteen years. His father was a tanner, who sent his son to Vanderbilt University at Nashville. Here he received his M. D. degree in 1891, at the age of twenty-five, and came back to Pem- iscot county.
The Doctor did not select Cooter as his field but settled here accidentally, as it were. In fact he was marooned here by the high water and by the time the floods had subsided and travel was again possible he had acquired a small practice and so he stayed. At present he has an extensive practice in the southern part of the county, and as he is one of the oldest physicians in Pemiscot county so is his practice one of the most extensive.
When Dr. Cooper was stopped in Cooter because of the high water, his sole possession was one horse. He now owns a two hundred and fifty acre farm near Douglas, all of cleared land and furnished with good buildings. In the town of Cooter he has a lodge property on Main street and is the possessor of a telephone line of one hundred and fifty subscribers, the first telephone line of the community. He also has farm land in Arkansas.
In the year after his graduation Dr. Cooper was married to Meda Brooks. The two chil- dren of this marriage, Lawrence E. and Paul H., are still at home. The mother died in 1908, and Dr. Cooper married Miss Effie Whitener, of Bollinger county. She and Dr. Cooper are members of the Methodist church, South.
In addition to his membership in the med- ical societies of the county, the state of Mis- sonri and in the American Medical Associa- tion, Dr. Cooper is affiliated with the Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen and Woodmen of the World in Cooter. He was for one year president of the Bank of Cooter and is now a member of the town board.
JOHN W. WALLACE is a minister's son and. unlike those who are much spoken of and probably little known, he has always been in- terested in all movements for the nplifting of mankind. He is especially active in the work of combating the liquor trade and its influ- ences.
IFardin county, Tennessee, was John Wal- lace's birthplace. He was born in 1853 and spent the first four years of his life in the county where he began it. Like most Metho- dist ministers' sons, he lived in several dif- erent places before he grew np. From Hardin
county his father went to Mississippi, to a settlement near Corinth, and remained there two years. At the end of this time the family went back to Tennessee, locating in MeNary county. Here they stayed eight years and William attended school. From MeNary county they moved to Henderson county in the same state, and there Mr. John Wallace lived until he came to Missouri.
At the age of twenty-two Mr. Wallace was married to Miss Sarah Lipscomb, a lady born and reared in Henderson county, where her marriage to Mr. Wallace took place. The young couple were poor when they began life together. John W. Wallace farmed, and when his wife inherited forty-six acres of wooded land he bought another forty-six from one of the other heirs and proceeded to im- prove the whole tract. He cleared the land, put up good buildings and planted an orchard and also began to raise stock.
Mr. Wallace came to Pemiscot county in 1897. He had decided that this was a better place to earn a living, so he sold out and set- tled on a place a little south of Steele. His assets when he arrived were one hundred and thirty dollars and a plug team. For five years he was engaged in the monument business in Caruthersville, but except for this he has lived at and near Steele ever since coming to the county. He was for five years engaged in farming near Steele, was then engaged in merchandising for three years, re-entered gen- eral merchandising two years later, and is at the present time engaged in handling general merchandise. He is running his establish- ment alone, as he has bought out his partners. He has a highly satisfactory trade and is do- iug a profitable business. He owns a farm ad- joining town, a place of forty-five acres of good land. He also has a house worth over one thousand five hundred dollars with three lots and a barn.
Mr. Wallace grew up in a religious atmos- phere and he has not departed from the way in which he was trained up as a child. He takes an active part in the work of the Metho- dist church, of which he is steward and a trustee. Ever since the organization of the Sunday school he has been its superintendent.
Politically Mr. Wallace is a Democrat, but perhaps it might be said that he is even more a Prohibitionist. When the county Anti-Sa- loon League was formed in 1910, he was presi- dent of the organization and he was candidate for state representative on a "dry" ticket. Ile has always taken an active part against
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the liquor element whichever party it might belong to.
Both of Mr. Wallace's children live with him. His daughter is Mrs. Overturf, whose husband is a traveling salesman. llis son Joseph A. Wallace is said to be the smallest Red Man in the state. John W. Wallace be- longs to the Masonic order, being a member of the Blue Lodge at Cottonwood Point.
ALLEN C. BROWN, M. D., resides in the vil- lage of Moselle and was born in Boles town- ship, Franklin county, Missouri, March 1. 1864. He belongs to the era of pioneer settle- ment by inheritance and is descended from John Bonner Brown, who founded the family in Missouri, but who was a native of the state of Kentucky. To Burrel Brown, the father of John, belongs the distinction of bringing this particular branch of the family to the United States. Burrel was a Scotch weaver who fled from Edinburgh to America after in- juring a townsman in a personal encounter. He afterward paid for his passage aboard- ship to this country and ultimately located in Virginia, where he reared a family, among his sons being Joseph and John. Joseph was a surveyor who was sent into Missouri by the United States government to survey that sec- tion of the state adjacent to St. Louis and he was so impressed with the possibilities of the wilderness that he induced his brother, John Bonner, to also settle here.
James R. Brown, father of him whose name inaugurates this review, was born in Frank- lin county, Missouri, in 1829, and died here in 1876. He passed his life as a farmer and took as his wife Margaret Wade, a daughter of Greenberry Wade, another of the pioneer set- tlers of the state. The Wades migrated from the Old Dominion, from Greenbriar county, where the subject's great-grandfather was born December 10, 1770. The latter married Nancy Bay, born June 6, 1776, and their chil- dren were Margaret, John, Greenberry, Samuel, Polly, L. B., Eliza A., and Francis A. The parents removed to Bath county, Kentucky, about the date of its entry into the sisterhood of states and the father died there June 7, 1844.
Greenberry Wade was born in Bath county, Kentucky, November 1, 1803, and for fifteen years he was a judge of the county court of Franklin county. He married Mary W. Kel- so May 26, 1823. His wife was born in Vir- ginia, May 7, 1805, and their children were: Nancy, who married first a Mr. Woodland
and second a Mr. Reynolds, and who was born in Bath county, Kentucky, April 10, 1824; Eveline, born in Bath county, Ken- tueky, January 28, 1825, who married a Mr. Lane and removed to Texas, where she passed away; Eliza A., who was born in Warren county, Missouri, December 12, 1825, and who became the wife of one Henry Duncan; Chap- man W., born in Bath county, Kentucky. February 27, 1830, who died while a resident of Cabool, Missouri; Dr. Robert Bay, born in Morgan county, Kentucky, July 24, 1832, and died in Scott county, Missouri, in 1876; Sarah Chapman, who died in 1883, at the age of forty-five years, she having survived her hus- band, Nathaniel Prentice, some sixteen years; William K., born in Franklin county, Mis- souri, August 7, 1837, who died young; Mar- garet, mother of Dr. Brown, born in Franklin county, Missouri, in August 21, 1839, and died March 27, 1869; Virginia, born in Franklin county, Missouri, November 25, 1841, the wife of James Chisholm and a resident of the county ; James Wade, born in Franklin county, April 18, 1844, deceased in early life ; and Charles B., born in Franklin county, Mis- souri, September 4, 1846, and killed while a soldier in the Confederate army. Dr. Brown's ancestry is interesting and it is indeed appro- priate that the previous forces that are united in him should be traced. In this day, when it is the exception to find an American citizen, one of whose parents was not born in a foreign country, he appears as unusually American.
Dr. Brown is the eldest of a family of three sons. The second son, James Bedford, died in 1896, and Norman G. is a resident of Okla- homa. Allen C. was only five years of age when his mother died and only twelve when he lost his father. However, he grew up in the community of his birth among his rela- tives, gaining his early education in the pub- lic schools and later matriculating as a student in the Normal School at Cape Girardeau. Teaching was his first choice among the pro- fessions and he was engaged in public school work for nine years, seven of which he spent in Pacific as principal. While there he 'mar- ried, the lady to become his wife being one of the county's most capable teachers and one of the faculty of the Pacific schools. She con- tinued to teach for four years after her mar- riage to the subject and then retired to devote herself more thoroughly to domestic affairs.
As time went on Dr. Brown found himself. so to speak, and he concluded to prepare him-
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self for the profession of medicine, a decision whose wisdom has since been proved. He took up the study of medicine in earnest in 1892, after his retirement from the school room, and became a student of the Missouri Medical Col- lege at St. Louis. He completed his course in 1895 and in April of that year he located at Moselle. During his period of studentship he spent his vacations in special work in the laboratory, and in other fields of college work and thus his preparation was unusually thor- ough. Visiting the city clinics was on his daily program during his well-spent vacation periods. He is a member of the Franklin County Medical Society and has been its sec- retary since its organization. He belongs to the Missouri State Medical Society and to the American Medical Association; he is first vice-president of the 'Frisco System Medical Association and he is an ex-president of the Rolla District Medical Association. He is one of the directors of the Bank of Moselle and is secretary of its board. The bank was organ- ized in 1908 and is capitalized at ten thousand dollars. He enjoys an excellent practice and is held in highest regard, professionally and as a citizen, in the community in which his interests are centered.
On August 7, 1889, Dr. Brown laid the foundation of an extremely happy household by his marriage to Miss Rebecca Moore, daughter of William C. Moore, of Union county, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Brown was born May 1, 1865. The family came to Mis- souri in 1884 and Mrs. Brown spent eight years in public school work in Franklin county. The Moore family is of Revolution- ary stock and the immigrant ancestor was an Englishman. James Moore, his son, enlisted May 1, 1776, in the First Pennsylvania Regu- lar troops under Captain Parr, as a member of Colonel Edward Hand's Regiment of Colonial troops. He fought in the battles of Long Island and Saratoga and after the sur- render of Burgoyne marched with the troops to Valley Forge in November, 1778, and spent there the gloomiest and hardest winter of the war. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Brown, Charles Wagenhurst, married a Miss Rebecca Weasner, also of Revolutionary an- cestry. Her father, William C. Moore, is de- ceased, but his widow resides at Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Their children are as follows: Annie Baker, of Allenwood, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Brown; Allen R., of Franklin county ; and Mrs. C. F. Kincaid, of St. Louis. Dr. and Mrs. Brown share their pleasant home
with three children: Annie Baker, Ruth and Lyman Seaburn.
GILBERT T. PENNY, D. D. S. Prominent among the men who have won honor and dis- tinction in professional, industrial and civic circles is Gilbert T. Penny, D. D. S., of Mal- den, who has won a fine reputation in his pro- fession ; has cleared and improved a farm of two hundred acres; and is now serving his second term as mayor of the city. A son of John Penny, he was born June 17, 1867, at Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau county. His grandfather, Rev. Cullen Penny, was a Metho- dist minister and one of the early circuit riders of Missouri, where he spent his last years.
John Penny was born and reared in North Carolina, and as a young man located in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri. Buying a tract of land that was still in its primeval wildness, he labored heroically to redeem a farm from the forest, and in his work was quite success- ful. On the estate which he cleared and im- proved he has lived for upwards of half a century, an esteemed and respected citizen, and one of the most extensive farmers of his neighborhood. His wife, whose maiden name was Susan Drum, was born in Missouri, of pioneer parentage.
Remaining on the home farm until twenty- five years of age, Gilbert T. Penny was grad- uated from the Oak Ridge High School, and after an attendance at the Normal School taught school in Cape Girardeau county four years. Subsequently entering Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, he was there graduated in 1894, with the degree of D. D. S. The Doctor has since been success- fully engaged in the practice of his profession at Malden, where he has a fine patronage. He belongs to the Missouri State and the South- eastern Missouri District, Dental Associa- tions. The Doctor is an earnest supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, but is not a politician in the sense implied by the term. He has been a member of the Malden School Board during the past four years, and has also served for two years on the City term of two years, and after a lapse of four years, in the spring of 1911, he was again elected to the same high position, at that elec- tion having no opponent, it being the first time in the history of the town that such a thing happened. Under his judicious administra- tion needed improvements are being made, sidewalks being extended, and cement being
Rott le Gerade
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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
used in their construction. Dr. Penny, as heretofore mentioned, has cleared a farm of one hundred and twenty acres from the wilderness, and has placed about sixty acres of it under cultivation, raising corn prin- cipally.
Dr. Penny married, in Malden, Missouri, Maggie M. Penny, whose parents died in New Madrid county, Missouri, when she was an infant, leaving her to the care of an uncle, John Penny, of Clarkton, Missouri. The Doc- tor and Mrs. Penny have one child, Fred, a school boy. Mrs. Penny is a pleasant, attract- ive woman, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. The Doctor is active and prominent in the Masonic order, and has served three times as worthy master of his lodge; is past eminent commander of Malden Commandery, No. 61, K. T .; and has repre- sented his lodge at the Grand Lodge.
Dr. Penny helped organize the Malden Savings and Loan Association, and served as its president during its life of four years. It was capitalized at two hundred thousand dol- lars, and issued one hundred and fifty thcu- sand dollars. It helped to build many homes in Malden and vicinity.
ROBERT C. WADE, president of the Malden Hardware & Furniture Company, at Malden, Missouri, and prominent in agricultural cir- cles in this section of the state for a number of years, is a representative business man of this city, and is a man who not only has achieved his individual success, but has also public-spiritedly devoted himself to the general welfare of his fellow citizens, and has been foremost in advancing improve- ments which will prove of lasting benefit to the city, county and state. He is, further- more, a self-made man, having lost his father at an early age and compelled to seek his ad- vancement as best he could. From the first he was possessed of ambition and determina- tion and his energy, courage and business judgment have brought him to a position of esteem and influence among the citizens of this state, where he is a man of mark in all the relations of life.
A native of Rutherford county. Tennessee. Robert C. Wade was born on the 26th of June, 1834, and he is a son of Noah and Rachel (Wade) Wade, the former of whom died when the subject of this review was a child of but six years of age, and the latter of whom was summoned to the life eternal in 1872. The father was a farmer by occupa-
tion and he passed away in Gibson county, Tennessee, leaving a widow and seven chil- dren. When thirteen years of age the young Robert C. had full charge of the old home farm, his mother being an invalid and the support of the family depending largely on him. His educational training was of most limited order but his extensive reading and association with important affairs has made him a man of broad information. At the out- break of the Civil war he became an ardent sympathizer with the cause of the Confeder- acy and for four years was a gallant soldier in the Forty-seventh Regiment, in the Army of the Tennessee. He participated in a num- ber of important engagements marking the progress of the war, the same including the battles at Richmond and Perryville and the Atlanta campaign. For a time he was wagon master in the army, handling the provisions and laying and taking up bridges, having a detail of from twenty to eighty men. Just before Lee's surrender he was at home on a furlough, which lasted throughout the close of hostilities.
In December, 1867, Mr. Wade went to Philip county, Arkansas, later removing thence to Prairie county, that state, and re- maining in the latter place until 1889, which year marks his advent in Malden, Missouri. In Arkansas he had cleared himself a small farm and for seventeen years after his ar- rival at Malden he was engaged in agricult- ural pursuits on a fine estate of one hundred and seventy acres on the edge of the town. In 1905, in company with his son Robert L., Mr. Wade founded the Malden Hardware & Furniture Company, which is incorporated with a capital stock of eight thousand dollars and of which Mr. Wade is president. Since 1905 he has devoted his undivided time and attention to the business of this prosperous .concern and it is now recognized as one of the finest stores of its kind in this section of the state. The son has charge of the manage- ment of the store and he is a business man of remarkable executive ability and unusual energy. Mr. Wade disposed of his farm in 1905. In politics he is aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party but he has never participated actively in public affairs. He is the owner of a great deal of valuable real estate at Malden and as a business man has been decidedly success- ful.
Mr. Wade has been twice married, his first union having been to Miss Elizabeth E.
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Felts, of Tennessee, the ceremony having been performed in that state. To this union were born four children, two of whom are living at the present time, in 1911, namely, -Fanny, who is the wife of Rev. Z. T. Mc- Cann, of the St. Louis conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and he is stationed at Manchester, Missouri, having formerly served as pastor at Malden and Dex- ter; and Robert L. is manager of the Malden Hardware & Furniture Company's store at Malden, as previously noted. Mrs. Wade died in Arkansas in 1887 and subsequently Mr. Wade married Mrs. Mary Allen, of Mal- den, she being then the widow of Dr. R. C. Allen. Mrs. Allen was born in Tennessee and was a childhood friend of her second husband. There were no children born to the second marriage and Mrs. Wade was called to the great beyond in November, 1906, deeply mourned by a wide circle of loving and devoted friends. She made a fine home for her step-children and was a woman of most gracious personality, wield- ing a broad influence for good in the entire community.
Mr. Wade is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in the different departments of whose work he has been an active factor for sixty-six years. He helped build the beautiful church edifice of that denomination at Malden and organized the first Methodist Sunday-school in this dis- trict, being superintendent of the same and a teacher of a men's class for a number of years past. He is also church steward. Mr. Wade has lived a life such as few men know. God-fearing, law-abiding, progressive, his life is as truly that of a Christian gentleman as any man's can well be. Unwaveringly he has done the right as he has interpreted it and by reason of his broad human sympathy and exemplary life is held in high regard by all with whom he has come in contact.
GEORGE DALTON, M. D. The career of Dr. George Dalton is a splendid example of what may be accomplished by young manhood that is consecrated to ambition and high purposes. He is a prominent physician and surgeon at Malden, Missouri, and a self-made one at that. His start in getting his education was particu- larly difficult and many young men in his po- sition would have become discouraged and left the field, but the obstacles, instead of dis- couraging Dr. Dalton, spurred him onward, giving him a momentum and force which have
since resulted in steady progress and success and have brought him the esteem of his fellow practitioners and an extensive patronage. He is president of the Bank of Malden and in Masonie circles is unusually prominent.
A native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Dr. George Dalton was born on the 23d of April, 1853, and he is a son of James and Mary Dal- ton, both of whom were born and reared in Ireland, immigrating thence to the United States about 1850. The father was a marble polisher by trade and for a time was em- ployed as such in shops in St. Louis. As a child the Doctor resided on a farm near Keokuk, Iowa, and later he lived in St. Louis. At the age of fourteen years he went to Ten- nessee, where he worked on a farm, availing himself of such educational advantages as were offered and reading and studying ex- tensively by himself during his leisure mo- ments. He early decided on the medical pro- fession as his life work and applied his every energy to attaining his goal. At the age of twenty-one years he was matriculated as a student in the University of Missouri, in the medical department of which excellent insti- tution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1889, having in the meantime been licensed to practice medicine in this state and having worked along that line for five years prior to his graduation. He was a prominent physician and surgeon at Judsonia, Arkansas, until November, 1896, which date marks his advent in Malden. Here he controls a large patronage and in connection with his work is a member of the Arkansas State Medical Society and the Southeastern Missouri Med- ical Society, of which latter organization he is secretary, in 1911. In 1904 Dr. Dalton pursued a post-graduate course in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School & Hospi- tal, being thus exceedingly well equipped for his work, in which he has won wide renown.
Dr. Dalton has been for some time president of the substantial monetary institution known as the Bank of Malden and he owns a half in- terest in the M. H. Osborn & Company, a mercantile enterprise founded by him in 1905. He is also the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres of land on the edge of Malden, the same being devoted to diversified agriculture and the raising of high- grade stock. Inasmuch as the splendid suc- cess achieved by Dr. Dalton is entirely the outcome of his own well directed endeavors it is the more gratifying to contemplate.
In Arkansas, in the year 1884, was cele-
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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
brated the marriage of Dr. Dalton to Miss Susie Rucker, who was born in Tennessee but who is descended from a fine old Arkansas family. Dr. and Mrs. Dalton are the parents of four children, of whom Zetta and Ruth have life certificates as Missouri teachers; Lila is a senior in the University of Missouri, at Columbia; and George, Jr., is a sophomore in the agricultural department of the University of Missouri.
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