USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 61
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In 1880 Mr. DeLisle was united in mar- riage to Miss Modest Meatt, who died October 2, 1893, the daughter of Edward and Modest Meatt. The issue of their union were: Stella, born in 1881; Lewis, in 1884, and now assist- ant cashier in the Bank of Portageville; and Virgie, born in December, 1892. On October 10, 1905, Mr. DeLisle laid the foundations of his present happy and hospitable home by his marriage on that date to Miss Mary O'Connor, of Fredericktown, Madison county. Their children are Francis W., now five years old ; Ellen R., aged three; and Mary L., a baby of fifteen months.
Mr. DeLisle and his family conform to the Catholic faith, as has his family back to the days when they lived in France. Fraternally Mr. DeLisle is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and is also affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. In the realm of poli- tics his opinions coincide with those promul- gated by the Democratic party, and he has served the community in which he lives as alderman from the Second ward for a period of eight years, and for six years on the School Board.
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D. W. BURFORD. The father of D. W. Bur- ford, K. F. Burford, practiced two of the learned professions. He was born in Tennes- see, was a lawyer of Effingham, Illinois, and in 1852, two years before the birth of D. W. Bur- ford, began the practice of medicine in Barry county, Missouri. After six years of resi- dence here he removed to Cape Girardeau county, where he lived until 1892-thirty- four years. From there he came to Lutesville and remained in this city until his death at the age of ninety. He passed away on April 5 1910. D. W. Burford's mother died in 1864, at the age of thirty-seven. Dr. Burford brought up a family of seven children.
D. W. Burford was educated in the country schools of Cape Girardeau county. He be- gan teaching at the age of twenty-four and taught for nine years. In 1885 he went into the general merchandise business at Gravel Hill, in the same county where he had gone to school. For nine years he carried on his es- tablishment there and then came to Lutes- ville, where he has been for the past eighteen years. He is in partnership with his step- mother and they own a stock valued at nine thousand dollars, as well as the building in which they do business. Mrs. Burford be- came the wife of Dr. Burford in 1865. She was formerly Sophia Price, of Lafayette county, Missouri. Her parents, Thomas and Lavinia Price, are old residents of Lafayette county, where the father was a farmer and a millwright. Mrs. Price was born in Mary- land.
In 1876 D. W. Burford was married to Miss Sophia C. Kinder. Her parents are Alfred E. and Matilda Estes Kinder, of Cape Girardeau county. The only child of this marriage is Roscoe Burford, born in 1885. He is at pres- ent at Dexter, Missouri, where he is station agent for the Iron Mountain Railway. He is married to Vera, daughter of David Clip- pard, of Marble Hill, and has one daughter, Eloise.
In the lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Mr. Burford is recorder, and he serves in the same capacity for the K. O. T. M. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows fra- ternity. In his lodges, as in all other rela- tions with his fellow-citizens, Mr. Burford is an esteemed and popular member.
DR. E. E. JONES is the second physician to locate in Lilbourn. His predecessor in the profession killed himself. Dr. Jones has been in the town only since 1907, and in that time
has built up a large practice. His field ex- tends to Marston on the south and to New Madrid on the east. For one year before coming to Lilbourn, he practiced with his brother, Dr. C. H. Jones, of Brunot, in Wayne county, Missouri.
Dr. Jones received his medical education at St. Louis, in the American Medical College, where he attended four years and graduated in 1906, near the head of his class. He pur- sued the Eclectic course while in school. He received his literary education at Concor- dia College, Wayne county, Missouri, secur- ing his B. S. degree, and later attended the Cape Girardeau Normal.
Two years after coming to Lilbourn Dr. Jones was married to Miss Anna Thompson, who was born at Petrolea, Ontario, Canada. They have two children, Charles Edward, born February 17, 1910, and Corliss Lee, born September 21, 1911.
Dr. Jones is a member of the National Ec- lectic Medical Society and also of the medical society of the state and of the county. Like most of the successful men of the middle west, he grew up on a farm. Iron county, Missouri, was his birthplace and his home until he went away to school. When he settled in Lilbourn in 1907, he was still paying for his education, and in the four years of his stay here he has built up a remarkably good practice for so short a time.
EDWARD O. TAYLOR. Among the practical and progressive agriculturists of Dunklin county is Edward O. Taylor, of Campbell, whose energy, ability and excellent business tact have won him an assured position among the prominent husbandmen of this section of the state and made him an important factor in the advancement of its farming interests. He was born September 3, 1870, in Dunklin county, Missouri, a son of the Lee J. Taylor, Sr., of whom a brief biographical sketch may be found on another page of this volume, in connection with that of Lee J. Taylor, his son.
Receiving a good common-school education in the public schools, Edward O. Taylor be- gan work as a wage earner when seventeen years old, and for seven years was employed as clerk in a mercantile establishment. His natural inclinations turning towards the rural ocenpation to which he was reared, he then purchased one hundred and twenty acres of the land now included in his present farm, and afterwards increased its acreage by the purchase of forty acres of adjacent land. He
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has all but twenty acres of his farm under cultivation, and his improvements on the place are excellent and valuable, reflecting credit upon his wisdom and good manage- ment. Mr. Taylor's farm is well drained and fenced, and admirably adapted to the grow- ing of corn, wheat, oats and hay, his principal crops, which bring him a handsome annual income. He likewise makes a specialty, to some extent, of stock raising, having now eight horses, eight head of cattle, thirty sheep, three hundred and fifty chickens and thirty fine Duroc Jersey hogs.
Mr. Taylor married, in 1899, Mamie Mor - ton, a daughter of Henry Stalling and Fran ces (Chandler) Morton, residents of Humans- ville, Missouri, and they have one child. Van, born June 22, 1900. Religiously Mr. Taylor and his wife are faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, which he has served as steward for four years. Fra- ternally he is a member of Campbell Lodge, No. 212, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons. Politically he uniformly casts his vote in support of the Democratic ticket.
JOHN N. BARNES has put his hand to a va- riety of things, including the plough, in the forty-five years of his life, and he has guided them all with success. He was born in Pemis- cot county, near Portageville, in 1866, and at- tended the subscription and the public schools in that county and in New Madrid, near Point Pleasant. In 1889 he was married and for four years thereafter ran his mother's farm.
Mr. Barnes' next enterprise was a general merchandise store at Hayward, at which place he was also postmaster. The venture was a success, but at the end of three years its pros- perous course was cut off by a fire, which en- tirely destroyed the stock. Mr. Barnes then bought a place and farmed for a year, and next spring moved to Stewart's Landing and took care of two government lights on the river. The following February he returned to Hayward and in July of the same year moved to Hayti and built a home. There he remained four months and then traded the property in Hayti for a store in Hayward.
For three years Mr. Barnes did a thriving trade in Hayward and then traded his store for thirty acres of cleared land in Pemiscot count, near Portageville. He rented the farm and built his present home in town. Later he sold his land and built the brick
block, eighty by twenty-five feet, which he still owns. In 1901 and 1902 he worked on the railway and did carpenter work. He com- pleted his building in 1904 and from 1905 to 1909 elerked in Mr. Marr's store in Portage- ville. The next year he purchased a half in- terest in the Portageville Mill Company, and after keeping it a year traded it for two lots and a two-story house in town. Two years before he had bought a merry-go-round, which he also traded for a house and lots after running it seven months.
Mrs. Barnes is the daughter of Mike Fisher, a farmer, born in Tennessee in 1819. He lived to be eighty-three years old, dying in this county in 1902. Her mother was Mary Liggett Fisher, also a native of Tennessee, who died in Pemiscot county in 1883, at the age of thirty-six. Lucy Belle Fisher Barnes was born in Pemiscot county in 1873. Her two children, Cecil, born September 24, 1896, and Mary M., born July 12, 1900, are both at home. Mrs. Barnes is a person of unusual executive ability and broad interests. She is an active worker in the Methodist church, where her efficiency makes her partake of the portion of all willing and efficient workers- that of being chosen to manage matters. She is president of the Ladies' Aid Society now for the third year. Previous to this she held the office of treasurer for five years. Besides this she has taught in the Sunday-school for seven years. In the lodges of Portageville Mrs. Barnes belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Honor and to the Eastern Star, in which she has held office. She was formerly connected with the Ben Hur and with the Mystic Workers. Mr. Barnes is a Woodman of the World, a Modern Woodman and a Mason. In the last mentioned fraternity he has served two years as clerk, and in the first was four years banker. His political affilia- tion is with the Democratic party.
GEORGE H. TRAYLOR, one of New Madrid's most efficient lawyers, has become very well known during the dozen years that he has re- sided in the town. Not only has his profes- sional career heen of an exceptionally bril- liant nature, but he has also become identified with the civic and political prosperity of New Madrid. There is no more public-spirited man in the county than Mr. Traylor, nor one who has been more active in the furtherance of all matters of common betterment. A brief recital of the leading events of his life will
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serve to show that he has well earned the ap- probation which he has gained in New Mad- rid.
Mr. Traylor is a Kentuckian, as was his father. William Traylor, the grandfather, was born in North Carolina, there spent his boyhood days, there engaged in agricultural pursuits and there married, removing subse- quently to Caldwell county, Kentucky. In course of time four sons,-Jerry, Mage, E. M. and Hill H.,-were born to Mr. and Mrs. Traylor, and in 1838 the family moved from their Kentucky home to Missouri; they settled on a one-hundred-and-sixty acre tract of land some ten miles north of New Madrid and were proceeding to bring the wild land under culti- vation when the death of Fanny, the wife and mother, interrupted the quiet tenor of the family life. Mr. Traylor, not caring to re- main on the farm, sold the entire one hundred and sixty acres for the sum of thirty dollars and returned to his old home in Kentucky, after only three years' absence. This same land, owned by C. D. Matthews, is today worth one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. Mr. William Traylor took up the broken thread of his life in Kentucky, and remained there for the residue of his days, his demise occurring in the year 1868.
George H. Traylor's father, Jerry, was born July 15, 1834, and when he was four years of age he accompanied his parents and brothers to Missouri. He remembered little of his life on the farm near New Madrid, as he was only seven years old when the family returned to Kentucky, leaving the mother in the Ogden cemetery, New Madrid county. Jerry Traylor attended school in Kentucky and when he had finished his education he commeneed to farm. In 1861 he was married to Amanda Towery, who bore him five chil- dren,-Sanford, who died at the age of nine years; George, the distinguished lawyer whose name initiates this sketch; Mary J., born in October, 1866, in Kentucky; William E., whose birth occurred April 10, 1869; and Frogge, the date of whose nativity was 1871, and who resides in Mississippi county, Mis- souri. Father Traylor remained in Kentucky until 1897, when he moved to Mississippi county, Missouri, and died there in August, 1899. Besides his family and his farm Mr. Traylor had two absorbing interests-his church (he and his wife holding membership in the Methodist church) and the Farmers' Union . Mrs. Jerry Traylor's demise occurred in December, 1905, in Mississippi county, Mis-
souri, and husband and wife are both buried in the Charleston cemetery.
George H. Traylor, the eldest living son of his parents, was born in Caldwell county, Kentucky, April 27, 1864. His preliminary educational training was obtained in the pub- lic school during the winter, while in the sum- mer he assisted his father with the farm work. In the winter of 1888 and 1889 he took a gen- eral course at the male and female academy at Providence, Kentucky. He then went to live with his maternal grandfather, taking charge of his large business interests, and in 1890 and 1891 he attended the Bethel College at Russellville, Kentucky, entering the scien- tific department. At the close of the school year he returned to his grandfather's home, remaining there until 1894, when the old gentleman was summoned to his last rest. George Traylor had long been possessed of the desire to become a lawyer, but until now he had found no opportunity to fit himself for the profession. On the demise of his grand- father, he determined to wait no longer, but to commence his legal studies. He entered the office of Harry Ward, of Marion, Ken- tucky, and under the able guidance of that learned gentleman, Mr. Traylor made steady headway, being admitted to the bar at Prince- ton, Kentucky, on the 9th day of March, 1898. The following year, in the month of March, he came to New Madrid, where he commenced his legal practice alone. His success has been assured from the very commencement of his career. He was appointed probate judge to fill out the unexpired term of the deceased judge, and his record in that high office was irreproachable-his rulings characterized by their justness, combined with leniency. For two terms he has served in the capacity of city attorney.
On the 26th day of March, 1897, the year before Mr. Traylor moved to Missouri, he was united in marriage to Miss Rosa Davis, born March 6, 1877, at Shady Grove, Kentucky, where her parents, H. C. and Fanny Davis, were well-known residents. Mr. and Mrs. Traylor are now the parents of one child, Reba Gould, who was born October 6, 1901, at New Madrid, Missouri. Both husband and wife are members of the Methodist church, South, at New Madrid, and in a fraternal way Mr. Traylor is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he has ever been stannch to the Republican party, which in turn has appreciated the signal efforts he has put forth by electing him to public office.
P. P. Lfl
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In February, 1911, he was appointed to the position of post-master of New Madrid, and he is so systematic in his arrangement of his time and so possessed of executive ability that he is able to perform the duties which devolve on him as post-master while he is also carry- ing on his private legal practice.
LEONARD LEE LEFLER. One of the leading pharmacists of Pemiscot county, Leonard Lee Lefler is well established in Hayti, where he has built up a substantial and lucrative drug business, which he manages with undisputed success, being assisted in the store by his father, Columbus L. Leffler. A native of Pemiscot county, he was born August 25, 1879, on the paternal side being of honored French ancestry. His grandfather, Levi Leffler, was born in the city of Paris, France, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and as a young man immigrated to the United States. He married Narcissis Dorris, who born in Kentucky, in 1794, and died, in 1857, in Pemiscot county, Missouri, where they settled in pioneer days.
Columbus L. Leffler, who retains the orig- inal spelling of his surname, keeping the two "ff's," was born on a farm in Pemiscot coun- ty, Missouri, April 10, 1854, and was educated in the subscription schools. For many years after attaining his majority he was engaged in farming and lumbering, owning and operat- ing saw mills, buying and selling timber, and cultivating the soil. Moving to Hayti in 1897, he was for a time engaged in the timber busi- ness, and for two years served as city marshal. He subsequently bought out a grocery, which he conducted successfully until selling his store and stock to Mr. Allen, since which time he has worked in the drug store of his son Leonard.
On November 26, 1876, Columbus L. Leffler married Mary Jane Wilson, who was born in Tennessee, January 1, 1861, and their only child, Leonard Lee, is the special subject of this brief biographical sketch.
On leaving school Leonard Lee Lefler began learning the drug business, for fourteen years serving as a clerk for druggists in different places in Missouri, first in New Madrid, later in Charleston, and then in Cairo. He is now a registered pharmacist, thoroughly ac- quainted with the details of the drug business, his large store at Hayti, where he enjoys a business amounting annually to eighteen thousand dollars, being one of the finest
stocked and equipped in Southeastern Mis- souri.
Politically both Mr. Lefler and his father are steadfast Democrats. Fraternally both are members of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons; of the Woodmen of the World; and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which the father has served as treasurer and as financial secretary.
Mr. Lefler married Hattie Dunmire, who died March 16, 1905, at the birth of their only child, Ernest D. Lefler. On September 30, 1911, Mr. Lefler married Miss Ada Dorris.
C. M. BARNES was born in New Madrid county, two and a half miles east of Marston, on the 19th of July, 1873, his parents being S. S. and Laura Marston Barnes. He began his education in the country schools and when he was eight his family moved to New Madrid but after one year in that town they moved to the farm again and remained there until 1886. At this date they settled in New Madrid and remained there until C. M. of this sketch was grown.
In 1891 Mr. Barnes entered the preparatory department of the State University of Mis- souri, and after two years in that course en- tered the collegiate department, from which he graduated in 1898. While in the univer- sity Mr. Barnes took work in literature, peda- gogics, history and social science. He gradu- ated with the degree of Bachelor of Letters.
After graduation Mr. Barnes went with the cadets to the Spanish-American war. During his course he had been prominent in all stu- dent activities, serving as local editor of the university paper, the M. S. U. Independent. He enlisted in the army as a private, but was appointed first lieutenant of Company M, Fourth Missouri U. S. V. I., by Adjutant-Gen- eral Bell of Missouri. Mr. Barnes was regi- mental engineer and range officer. He spent three months in Virginia and the same period of time in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, being mustered out February 10, 1899.
Upon returning to New Madrid Mr. Barnes took charge of a small railway (St. Louis and Memphis), now belonging to the Frisco sys- tem. This division was fourteen miles in length and had been purchased by Mr. Barnes' father in 1899. For two years the son was superintendent of this road, hav- ing studied civil engineering a little while in the university. The father sold out his inter- est in the road in 1901.
Mr. Barnes was married in 1899 to Miss
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Emma Atkins, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. She was born August 12, 1880, and was married on May 10, some two months before her nine- teenth birthday. After his marriage, Mr. Barnes went to Everett, Washington, and worked in a wholesale house for five months. When he returned to Missouri he took charge of the Barnes Store Company in Marston. This corporation was organized in New Mad- rid in 1886, the Barnes family being the members of the firm. When the Marston branch was established there was only one store in town. Mr. Barnes has been at the head of it ever since it was started and is now the vice president of the company. The store handles general merchandise and has practi- cally all the trade of the town, with an in- creasing business. Other interests which he has in Marston besides his mercantile business are the Bank of Marston and the Marston Realty Company, in both of which he is a stockholder. He also owns real estate in the town. In December, 1911, he was appointed by Governor Hadley a member of the State Board of Agriculture and State Fair Board from the Fourteenth Congressional District.
Ever since coming to Marston Mr. Barnes has been the postmaster of the town. The of- fice is a fourth class one at present. In the lodges of the town he is a prominent member. He belongs to the historic Masonic fraternity and is first noble grand of the Marston lodge of the Odd Fellows and clerk of the Modern Woodmen. He is a member of the Presby- terian church. His three children, C. Merlin, junior, Asa and S. S., junior, are all at home.
EDWARD CHARLES HAINES. Canada has been generous in her endowment of New Mad- rid county with upright and progressive citi- zens, for besides several other prominent busi- ness men of Portageville, Edward Charles Haines comes of her stock. He was born Oc- tober 23, 1848, in Lower Canada, the son of Charles and Emmaline (Perry) Haines, the former of whom was a native of the city of Montreal and the latter of whom also claimed the Dominion as her birthplace, she being a distant relative of the Commodore. They moved to the "States" before the outbreak of the Civil war, and both passed away in Dunk- lin county. Missouri.
Edward Charles Haines has been in many places and engaged in a variety of enterprises and has seen both war and peace since he came with his parents from the British com- monwealth to the state of Indiana. There the
family stayed for fifteen years, and for seven years Edward C. operated a timber concern and a saw-mill. In 1864, when but sixteen years of age, he felt the spirit of the new country, and enlisted in her behalf in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, Company K, and served one year. His company was the one detailed to guard General LeRoy's headquarters at Tul- lahoma, Tennessee.
After the cessation of strife Mr. Haines re- turned to the pursuits of peace, and, going to El Paso, Illinois, he engaged in the mercantile business before settling in Dunklin county, where he farmed for two years, and then em- barked in the saw-mill business and built a saw-mill at Campbell when the Cotton Belt was being constructed. It is interesting to note that Mr. Haines used to own the present site of Campbell. He remained there for seven years before removing to Lottie, New Madrid county, where he had mercantile and saw-mill interests for seven years. In 1899 he came to Portageville and opened a saw-mill and later operated a box factory for a couple of years. Mr. Haines is persistently energetic and he has seldom been without two or three saw-mills, with an eye always to new oppor- tunities that should be of benefit to himself and to the community. He has put up a sash and door factory and also manufactures staves, which he and his son still own. Five years ago he opened a general merchandise and hardware store, and success has so at- tended its operation that it is now one of the largest stores in town, doing an annual busi- ness of forty thousand dollars.
While in Indiana, Mr. Haines established a home of his own through his marriage, the lady of his choice being Miss Louisa Morris. The children of this union are as follows: Frank, who manages a grist and saw-mill in Portageville; and Bert, who operates the sash and door factory and the planing mills. Mr. Haines contracted his second marriage with Miss Sarah E. Davis, a daughter of George MeLeyea and Jane (McLeyea) Davis, promi- nent old settlers of Dunklin county, who came to Missouri when the state demanded all the fortitude and steadfastness of true pioneering to make life on the frontier a success. Mr. and Mrs. Haines have no children. Both are members of the Presbyterian church.
Though a busy man, Mr. Haines has ever been willing to assume the duties of public life when his fellow-citizens made demands upon him. He was elected mayor of Portage-
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