USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 53
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Mr. Winston's activities are not confined to the management of the flourishing mercantile establishment of which he is part owner. He farms a tract of one hundred and ninety acres adjoining the town. This land is the property of himself, his wife and his mother- in-law. Part of the work on this large farm Mr. Winston is obliged to hire done, but he does a large share of it himself. When he took charge of the place it was in poor condi- tion but he has improved it until now it is worth a hundred dollars an acre. One forty acre tract Mr. Winston has cleared and brought under cultivation since taking charge of the farm. His crops are mainly corn, cot- ton and melons.
Mr. Winston is a Democrat in political policy but he is not a practical politician. Ile is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows. Both personally and as a business man he is regarded as one of Holcomb's most de- sirable citizens-one of the sort who are the "sinews of the republic."
COLUMBUS E. PRITCHARD was born on his father's first farm in this county in 1871, on January 23d. This original eighty is just a mile and a half from the place where the father moved when Columbus was a boy and on which the son now lives. The father is Charles Manley Pritchard, of whom mention may be found on other pages of this work.
Subscription schools were the only means of getting an education in the county during the boyhood days of Mr. Pritchard, and he walked three and a half miles to and from school every day. Until he was twenty, Columbus Pritchard lived at home.
When he was twenty-three years old his father gave him forty acres of land. He now owns two hundred acres in all, of which eighty adjoins Manley. The rest is a mile west of the town and all in one piece. Mr. Pritchard has refused a hundred dollars an acre for all his holdings. A fine residence in Manley is another of Mr. Pritchard's pieces of property.
In 1891 he was married to Miss Stacy Revis, born in Tennessee, but a resident of Missouri since her babyhood. Mrs. C. E. Pritchard was not sixteen at the time of her marriage.
Only one of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard is living. This is a daughter, Vera Edna, born June 25, 1908. Mr. Pritchard is an active member of the lodge of the Woodmen of the World and also holds membership in the Mutual Protective League. The Baptist church has in him an enthusiastic and devoted worker. The church and also the school of Manley are on a part of his father's present farm.
In 1910 Mr. Columbus Pritchard was ap- pointed a fourth-class postmaster. This could not be said to be a political appoint- ment, as Mr. Pritchard is a Democrat. The office has been in C. M. Pritchard & Com- pany's store for the past two years.
THOMAS E. PRITCHARD. Like his older brother, Thomas Pritchard was born in his father's old log cabin in the little clearing in the forest. The date of his birth is January 30, 1873, and he is a son of Charles Manley Pritchard, of whom mention is made else- where in this. work. He grew up on his
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father's place and had what schooling the subscription schools afforded, which was not a great deal. Until he was twenty-seven he remained at home.
On April 25, 1900, Thomas E. Pritchard was married to Nora E. Eulitt. Miss Eulitt was born within two miles of the birthplace of her husband, on July 8, 1882. IIer parents are Margaret and W. J. Eulitt, of this county. For a year after his marriage Thomas Pritch- ard worked for his father. In addition to the forty acres which his father gave him Mr. Pritchard bought another forty, so when he married he possessed eighty acres. He made his first crop in 1901. In 1902 he added an- other eighty acres to his tract, working a part and renting out the remainder for about five years. By this time he had built a new house on what is now his home place and in 1906 took up his residence there. He now owns two hundred and forty acres adjoining Man- ley, and of this he has made two hundred acres by his own efforts .. C. M. Pritchard and his two sons own all of Manley except forty acres.
Like his brother, Mr. Thomas Pritchard is member of the Woodmen of the World. In political views, too, the brothers are agreed. Thomas has been district clerk of the school ever since it was organized.
Three of six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Pritchard are living: Lena May, born in 1905; Claude B., in 1908; and Merle, in 1911.
WILLIAM JAMES BURGESS, M. D., is one of the most up-to-date physicians in Caruthers- ville, making a specialty of the treatment of chronic diseases. There is no citizen of Caruthersville who is not familiar with the Therapeutic Institute of which Dr. Burgess is the proprietor and manager, although his excellent system of locating disease is not so generally understood. His methods of treat- ment are as varied as it is possible for them to be, and he is entirely opposed to the cure- alls which are advocated in certain institu- tions. It is true that he does attempt to cure all diseases, but each trouble has its own par-
ticular remedy. The Institute has patients from the states of Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, South Carolina, etc., and all ex-patients bear testimony to the curative efficacy of the Burgess methods.
Dr. Burgess' birth occurred April 30. 1877, at Victoria, Illinois. He is a son of Fred William and Sallie (McCoid) Burgess,
the father a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 29th day of August, 1846, while the mother claimed Fairfield, Iowa, as the place of her nativity, and July 2, 1848, was the date. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess, Sr., were married in 1872, at Fairfield, Iowa, and became the parents of three children : Maude, whose birth occurred April 5, 1874, and who is married to Andrew Larson; Robert MeCoid, born November 28, 1875, now a resi- dent of Missoula, Montana; and William James, the successful physician whose biog- raphy is here given. Father Burgess was a student in the public school when President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers; the young man, then not sixteen years of age, was seized with the desire to enlist, but on account of his extreme youth he was com- pelled to restrain his ardor. In 1864 he joined the Eighty-third Illinois Infantry and served with that regiment until the close of hostilities. Upon his return to the life of a civilian he went to Victoria, Illinois, where he became identified with the harness-making industry. In 1881 he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, and accepted a position as mail agent on the Burlington Railroad, remaining with this corporate concern for a period of twelve years. At the expiration of that time he again took up his trade and is today in the harness business at Keokuk. On the 15th day of March, 1897, his wife was summoned to the life eternal, since which time his inter- est has centered in the progress of the Repub- lican party; the Presbyterian church, of which he and his wife were both old mem- bers; the fellowship which he enjoys with his companions at arms, as he meets them at the post of the Grand Army of the Republic with which he is connected; and in the wel- fare and achievements of his children.
Dr. Burgess is the youngest of the family ; he has no recollection of the little town in Illinois where he was born, as the family moved to Keokuk, Iowa, when he was but four years of age. He has, however, distinct remembrance of the school where he received his preliminary educational training, the high school which he later attended, and the medi- cal school from which he was graduated April 19, 1901-his entire education up to that period having been obtained in Keokuk. Im- mediately following his graduation he came to Wyaconda, Missouri, where he remained until 1904, engaged in the general practice of medicine. During these three years he took special interest in chronic illness which
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came within his notice and accordingly he felt the desire to study further along this line. To that end he went to Chicago, where he took post graduate work, and he also took a course in the Chicago Electrical College, remaining in Chicago until the 1st of July, 1905. The ensuing three years he spent in study in St. Louis, Missouri, and in November, 1908, he came to Caruthersville. The following spring (April, 1909) he opened his institu- tion, which is known as the Dr. W. J. Burgess Therapeutic Institute, and is the only similar institute in his section of the country. Most physicians commence the examination of a patient by asking a long string of questions ; often the mere suggestion of some of these in- terrogations make the patient imagine that he has symptoms which do not exist save in his brain. Dr. Burgess asks no questions, but proceeds to locate the trouble for himself. His institute is one of the most thoroughly equipped in the country; he has two X-ray machines, which are in constant operation ; his assistants are all especially trained and fully qualified to perform the various duties allotted to them. It might be thought that inasmuch as Dr. Burgess has received such a thorough training that he does not experience the need of further study; such is not the case ; he realizes that the sponge which ceases to absorb shrivels, and it is impossible for him to have his work up-to-date unless his mind is in a similar condition. He is a mem- ber of the American Research Society, and methods of treatment approved by this body are immediately employed in the Dr. Burgess Therapeutic Institute. As an instance of this fact may be mentioned Dr. Burgess' early use of the injection method of treat- ing specific diseases of the blood,-a treat- ment which is causing such a sensation throughout the medical world. No single method of treatment is followed at the insti- tution, but electricity, medicine, massage, etc., are employed separately or together, as required for securing the best results. When drugs are required for patients, the medi- cines are furnished free, thus insuring purity and uniformity of materials. To those who live some distance from the Institute rooms and wholesome food are provided at very reasonable prices. Dr. Burgess invites visit- ors to inspect the Institute at any time and he takes pleasure in showing them demon- strations of the X-ray as used in examining and treating patients. During the three years that have elapsed since Dr. Burgess opened
the institute he has had to enlarge it and is expecting to make still further additions as occasion demands.
On the 25th of July, 1900, while yet a student in the Keokuk medical school, Dr. Burgess married Miss Jennie Larson, of Keokuk, born there April 30, 1882. She is a daughter of Bertel Larson and Anna Peter- son. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Burgess,-William Myrle, whose birth occurred May 26, 1903, and Ethel Janice, born April 16, 1907.
In political belief the Doctor is aligned with the Republican party. In fraternal con- nection he is affiliated with the Tribe of Red- men, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. Dr. Burgess has made many friends since he took up his residence in Caruthersville- friends who respect him because of his ster- ling qualities of mind and who esteem him because of his genial, sympathetic personal- ity.
ISAAC W. CALDWELL. It falls to some men to be born great, while others have to achieve greatness. It is clearly evident, however, that Isaac W. Caldwell, of Gibson, Dunklin county, was destined to be the architect of his own fortune. He began his career on a low rung of the ladder of attainments, but by un- tiring energy and a resolute purpose he has steadily pursued his way along the pathway of success, in the meantime gaining a note- worthy position among the active and valued citizens of his community and its more suc- cessful agriculturists. A Tennesseean by birth, he was born in 1859, in Union City, Obion county, where he was brought up and educated.
When twenty-seven years old Mr. Caldwell began life for himself as a farmer. On De- cember 19, 1887, he located at Gibson, Mis- souri, and for a year was employed in his chosen occupation on rented land. He sub- sequently bought sixty acres of land, and in its management was exceedingly fortunate. each year finding much profit in his opera- tions. He subsequently bought adjoining tracts of land, his present farm containing one hundred and thirty acres of rich and pro- duetive land, which he devotes to general farming, raising principally, cotton and melons, which give good returns for the care bestowed upon them. For seven years Mr. Caldwell was here engaged in mercantile pur-
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suits, but being burned out and losing three thousand six hundred dollars by the confla- gration, he retired from store keeping and has since confined himself entirely to his farm work. His estate is well fenced with wire, and to the improvements already inaugu- rated, and which he has made himself, he is constantly adding, each year enhancing the value of his property.
An active member of the Democratic party, Mr. Caldwell has been justice of the peace for the past twelve years, while eleven or twelve years ago he made the run for county treas- nrer. Religiously he is a trustworthy member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Fraternally he is a member of Freeman Lodge, No. 290, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all the chairs but one; and of the Modern Brotherhood of America.
Mr. Caldwell has been three times married. He married first, August 4, 1885, Maggie Alexander, who died in early womanhood, leaving one child, Iris, who lives at home. Mr. Caldwell married, in 1891, Mollie George, by whom he had two children, Gladys and Nellie. He married for his third wife Ida Caldwell, their marriage being solemnized June 9, 1907, and they have two children, Aubra Bryan and James Edward, born August 1, 1908, and October 5, 1911, respec- tively.
ROBERT L. MEAD. Tennessee has been the birthplace of many of Dunklin county's prominent and prosperous citizens, and Mr. R. L. Mead is of that number. His stay in that state was very brief, as he was born September 20, 1865, and in November of the same year his parents came to this county. They purchased a farm three miles east of Campbell and here Robert grew up.
There was little opportunity to secure an education at that time of the county's his- tory, as schools were few, and in addition to this fact Mr. Mead had duties at home which prevented his taking advantage of such facil- ities as were afforded, except to a very lim- ited extent. His father became deranged when Robert was eight years old and the care of the family of eight devolved upon an older brother, Samuel by name. With what assist- ance the others could give Samuel Mead ran the farm and supported the family. He is now living at Lake City, Arkansas.
Robert L. Mead lived at home and worked on the home place until his mother died. In
1885 he married Miss Arper A. Tinnon, a lady horn and reared in the county. As soon as they were married the young couple went to live on a farm near Campbell and this place was their home until they moved to their present abode, fifteen years later, in 1901.
When Mr. Mead purchased the first tract of his present farm he was practically at the very beginning of his financial success. He bought two hundred and forty-seven acres on time. Prosperity attended his undertaking and now, after buying and selling several tracts, he owns three hundred and twenty- seven acres of land, all under cultivation and requiring the services of fifteen men to operate.
This land was all timbered when Mr. Mead came to this locality, and before he bought it he superintended clearing it and then farmed it on shares. He perceived that the land was of unusual value and so he decided to buy it. He now farms about half of it himself and lets out the other half on shares. He rents about one hundred acres besides, making a total of over four hundred acres which he has under cultivation in his own and his tenants' charge. To have accomplished as much as this in a lifetime would be an achievement. That Mr. Mead has done it in a decade is an eloquent commentary on his ability and judgment as well as on his industry.
Mr. Mead has three sons, Samuel Law- rence, Vernon and Randall, all of whom are still at home with their father and mother.
ROBERT W. STOKES. One of the largest landholders of the town of Malden, and one of its most progressive and prosperous farm- ers, Robert W. Stokes, a veteran of the harvest fields, has accomplished a satisfac- tory work as an agriculturist and is now liv- ing practically retired from active pursuits, enjoying to the utmost the reward of his many years of unremitting toil. A life-long resident of Missouri, he was born November 30, 1839, in Cape Girardeau county, of hon- ored pioneer ancestry.
His father, John H. Stokes, was born in county Roscommon, Ireland, September 3, 1805, and as a young man eighteen or twenty years old, came to the United States. He began life for himself as a clerk, being first employed in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and later at Princeton, Indiana, a short time, where he took the oath of allegiance. Subse- quently, accompanied by his family, he came
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westward to Missouri, his intended point of destination being Jefferson City. The boat on which he was traveling caught fire, how- ever, and landed him at Cape Girardeau, where he remained. After farming for a year or two he engaged in other work, open- ing a private school, which he managed for a time, and subsequently filling various public offices of trust, including those of city asses- sor and city collector. Coming from there to Dunklin county in 1861, he engaged in merchandising at Clarkton in a store that he had opened in 1856 and managed, and also in one at Asherville, Stoddard county, that being at the time when the cotton gin at Cotton Plant was the only one in the county. The Civil war proved disas- trous to him, breaking up his business, his store finally being burned. He was subse- quently for a time engaged in farming near Clarkton, but spent his last years retired, in Clarkton, his death occurring there March 8, 1876, at the age of seventy-one years, six months and five days. He was active in pub- lie affairs, serving as a judge in the Court of Common Pleas and the Probate Court dur- ing the entire time that the two were asso- ciated as one office. He was a man of deep religious convictions and a member of the Presbyterian church. ,
John H. Stokes married, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, June 13, 1833. Lucretia Childs, who was born at Becket, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 4, 1818, and died at Clarkton, Missouri, in September, 1896, aged seventy-eight years. Seven children blessed their union, namely: Augusta, who married Dr. Paschal H. Chambers, of Lexington, Mis- souri, and died in that city, where prior to her marriage she was a successful teacher in the public schools; Roxanna, wife of Dr. Van H. Harrison, of Kennett, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page of this work; Thomas Chalmers Stokes, of Malden ; Charles Edward of Kansas City, publisher of the Leader; John Franklin, who died at Clarkton, at the age of thirty-eight years; William Childs, of Kennett, ex-county re- corder; and Robert W.
Coming to Dunklin county in the fall of 1856, Robert W. Stokes became identified with merchandising. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted, under General Jeff Thompson, in the Missouri State Guards for six months, and subsequently served as a sol- dier in the Confederate Army. After the conflict was over he engaged in farming near
Clarkton, and now owns four hundred acres of valuable land, a tract which includes his first purchase of forty acres. Buying first a small piece of timber, he labored faithfully to clear it, burning up quantities of fine tim- ber in his efforts to redeem a farm from its original wildness. For many years he grew cotton, the first crop of which was raised in this part of the country about 1863, its culti- vation in this section being forced by the exi- gencies of war. Mr. Stokes operates his land now by tenants, though when necessary he can himself manage the land. In 1881 he left the farm, and was engaged in the livery business at Clarkton for a few years, while thus employed carrying the mail from Mal- den to Kennett, via Clarkton. In 1899, after a short residence at Kennett, Mr. Stokes lo- cated at Malden, and in company with his brother William C. Stokes purchased a shin- gle mill near by, but was not very successful in its management, and he is now spending his life in pleasant retirement.
Mr. Stokes married, March 5, 1862, Mar- tha J. White, who was born in Obion county, Tennessee, but was brought up in Clarkton, Missouri. Her father, E. C. White, who died at Clarkton, Missouri, was for many years a prominent citizen of that place serving as justice of the peace and as county judge. He was for several years engaged in agricul- tural pursuits in Dunklin county, later run- ning a general store at Clarkton, and finally becoming an extensive dealer in land, acquir- ing much wealth in his operations. Mrs. Martha J. Stokes passed to the life beyond December 14, 1881, leaving seven children, namely : John E .; A. L .; Laura, wife of Al- bert J. Baker ; Robert W., Jr .; Birdie I., wife of M. B. Rayburn ; Luther B .; and Mattie J., wife of W. A. Cohen, a merchant at Freder- icktown, Missouri. All of the sons and the son-in-law, Mr. Baker, are engaged in busi- ness at Malden, being members of the Stokes Brothers Store Company. Mr. Stokes mar- ried for his second wife, June 28, 1882, Ella B. Page, of Lockhart, Caldwell county, Texas, and they have two children, Merrill Aubert, having a tin shop in Malden ; and Roy Manson, assistant cashier of the Bank of Malden.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Stokes are worthy mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. and she is a member of the Ladies' Aid Society and one of its active workers. Mr. Stokes is a Demo- crat. but is not a politician in any sense im- plied by the term. He served six years on
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the school board of Malden. Although as a young man Mr. Stokes could not endure a hound, or a man who owned one, he nas within the past fifteen or twenty years ue- veloped a love for hunting, and each winter takes a deer hunting trip. in early times, when wild game of all kinds abounded in this part of the country, many of the men of prominence, such as Judge Burgess and Gen- eral Wickem, would go to Clarkton to hunt, tinding great pleasure in the sport.
DANIEL J. KELLER. To the people of Mal- den the name heller suggests a man of ver- satile talents-a man who has passed the greater part of his life connected in some wise with journalism, but is now devoting his whole time to agriculture. It is a boon to the state of Missouri that scholarly men such as Mr. Keller are engaging in farming, thereby raising the status of the farmer from its former condition of opprobrium to one of envy.
Mr. Keller, born on the 1st of April, 1862, at La Crosse, Wisconsin, is of Irish descent. His father, Daniel Keller, was a native of the Emerald Isle, where his birth occurred on the 6th day of July, 1822, and at the age of sixteen he emigrated to America, settling in New York state, where he followed the occupation of a contractor and builder. He married Mary Carroll, born in New York city on the 4th day of May, 1825.
Daniel Keller, Jr., the sixth in order of birth of a family of eight children, spent the first nineteen years of his life in La Crosse, Wisconsin, during which time he received his elementary educational training in the pub- lic school, following the grammar school course by four years in high school. He early gave evidence of possessing literary abilities of a high order and while still in school he worked on the newspaper which was managed and edited by M. M. (Brick) Pomeroy-the famous writer of Civil war times. When Mr. Pomeroy went to Denver he was accompanied by Daniel Keller, and the two worked in har- mony for a couple of years, at the end of which time Mr. Keller returned east and set- tled in Kansas City, where for a brief inter- val he side-tracked into the express business, but soon returned to newspaper work. For seven years he was employed in the capacity of foreman of the Kansas City Times, only severing his connection when its owner, Dr. Mumford, died in 1892. In the spring of the year 1893 Mr. Keller went to New York city
to accept a position on the Commercial Ad- vertiser, and he remained in that great me- tropolis until 1900, when he came to Malden, Missouri, and bought out the Dunklin County News, one of the oldest papers of southeast- ern Missouri. Until the spring of 1911 he was the able editor of the News, and under his management the paper was in a more flourishing condition than at any previous time of its existence. Mr. Keller had, how- ever, experienced the call which nature often makes to a man who has all of his life been engaged in city work. Back to the land is the advice that the heart and soul offer, and the man who can and does heed this cry is very fortunate. It used to be thought that brains were not necessary in the management of a farm, and a premium was placed on brawn, but that age has passed. Mr. Keller has sold his interest in the Dunklin County News and is devoting his entire time to farming, bringing all his intelligence to bear on the land and thus assisting it to bear crops to its fullest capacity.
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