USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 63
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In 1894 he embarked in the saloon business here in Portageville, and built a large brick business block, the second brick block to be erected in Portageville. It was forty by eighty feet, and at the present time has an ad- dition ten by sixty feet.
In 1880 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Branham to Miss Emma Worland, a native of New Madrid county. She passed away, leav- ing one child, Rosalie Branham, and another child. Linnus Stanley, died when two years old. The present mistress of Mr. Branham's home was prior to marriage Miss Ruth Adams, of Pemiscot county. They are the parents of one child, a son, Adolphus Aquilla Branham.
Mr. Branham is now occupied with a busy private life. managing his farm and caring for his real estate interests. He makes his home in town. Politically he favors the men and measures advocated by the Democratic party. He is a charter member of the Wood- men of the World. Mr. Branham and family are members of the Catholic church.
JOSEPH FIELDING GORDON'S family have heen connected with the progress of Southi- eastern Missouri for more than half a cen- tury, while J. F. Gordon himself, a well- known figure in New Madrid, has for years been prominent in various ways. He has a high standing among the publishers and jour- nalists of the state ; he is distinguished in civic connection, as the holder of public offices ; and in the fields of commerce and finance he is no less notable.
The date of Mr. Gordon's birth is June 6. 1865, and his first entrance into the scene of
life occurred at Gayoso, then the county seat of Pemiscot county, Missouri. His father, John A. Gordon, was a native of Louisiana. Father Gordon's boyhood and youth were passed in Maury county, Tennessee, where he received a general education, and there, too, he enlisted as a soldier to serve in the Mexi- can war. Soon after leaving the army he came to Missouri (in 1858), took up his resi- dence at Gayoso, and commenced what proved to be a brilliant career, in the course of which he served Pemiscot county at various times as probate judge, as prosecutor, as county clerk, as circuit clerk and as recorder, while simultaneously he carried on the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1875. He prac- ticed law for the remainder of his active life. Soon after his arrival in Missouri John A. Gordon was united in marriage to Miss Nancy E. Yeargin, a member of an old Pemiscot county family. She became the mother of two daughters, Dolly and Louise, and one son, Jo- seph F .; her tastes were simple and her af- fections were divided between her family and her church (her membership being with the Methodists) ; her demise occurred at Gayoso, Missouri, about the month of January, 1871. John A. Gordon died February 12, 1886, when on business at Caruthersville. In poli- tics he had been a power, rendering unfalter- ing allegiance to the Democratic party. Mr. John A. Gordon married for his second wife, in 1873, Miss Belle T. McFarland, widow of Captain James H. McFarland, C. S. A. She died in August, 1875. His third wife was Miss Maria Oates. Their one son, Nebby Alexander Gordon, is editor of the Marion (Ark.) Reform, also deputy county and cir- cuit clerk.
After completing his limited schooling, Joseph F. Gordon was apprenticed as a printer to John S. Hill and H. C. Schult, and in 1886, having just attained his majority, he, as a result of his father's political training, became the publisher of the Democrat at Gayoso. The following year he went to Sisse- ton, Roberts county, South Dakota, as printer in an Indian school, and in 1888 returned to Gayoso, where he side-tracked from his chosen calling and for several months he was in the employ of DeLisle Brothers, who were en- gaged in the general merchandise business. Returning to printing in 1889, he worked in the Gayoso printing shop until 1890, when he was elected to the office of circuit court clerk, which position he held for the ensuing eight years, being an ex-officio recorder. In 1899 he
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served in the senate as clerk on the engrossing force, and that same year he moved to Ca- ruthersville, where he acted as deputy county clerk until he was appointed to the high office of probate judge, to fill out an unexpired term of Judge J. N. Delashmult. On the 1st day of April, 1902, having abandoned newspaper work, he moved to New Madrid, helped to or- ganize the ice plant there, becoming its secre- tary and general manager, and still retains his interest in this concern. In 1906 he was a second time appointed to the office of circuit clerk, and has remained the able incumbent of that office up to the present date (1911). In the month of March, in recognition of his acknowledged executive and financial abili- ties, he was asked to accept the position of cashier of the Commercial Bank, and, busy though he was, he accepted the urgent invita- tion.
On the 26th day of October, 1896, Mr. Gor- don married Miss Rose Bremermann, who had passed her entire life in Cape Girardeau, was born there July 10, 1875 (her parents, Ber- nard and Wilhelmine (Luckman) Bremer- mann, being respected residents of that city) and was there educated and married. She is a member of the Lutheran church. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon have had one son, John Bernard, born October 13, 1901, and who died in Au- gust, 1911, and they have buried two other children.
In a fraternal way Mr. Gordon is affiliated with the Masons and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His fellow citizens regard him as one of the ablest as well as one of the most genial residents of New Madrid.
WILLIAM H. NAPPER. A prosperous and highly esteemed resident of Dunklin county, William H. Napper has been intimately asso- ciated with its agricultural and industrial in- terests for many years, and is now living on his own farm, which is one of the best pieces of property in the neighborhood, and is assist- ing his son Harry in its management. Born in Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1854, he was brought to Missouri by his parents at the age of three years, and until ten years old lived with them in Cape Girardeau county. In 1864 the family removed to Dunklin county, settling in Kennett, where William H. re- ceived his early education, attending first a subscription school and later a public school.
As a boy and youth William H. Napper as- sisted his father on the farm, remaining at home until twenty-six years old. Beginning
life for himself at that age, he bought land and in addition to carrying on general farm- ing with good results was successfully en- gaged in the hotel business, being engaged in both lines of business until about 1908. Since that time he has helped his son manage the home estate as mentioned above. Mr. Napper is also an insurance man, being agent for the National Life Insurance Company, of Des Moines, Iowa.
Mr. Napper married Anna Barger, who was born in Spencer county, Indiana, and they have just one child, Harry G. Napper. In his political views Mr. Napper is a steadfast Democrat. Religiously he is an influential member of the Missionary Baptist church at Kennett, which he assisted in organizing. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, while formerly he also belonged to the Woodmen of the World.
EDWARD ALEXANDER WRIGHT. Whether the name of Edward Alexander Wright suggests journalism or journalism suggests the name of Edward Alexander Wright the fact is that the two are so closely connected that it is difficult to dissociate the two in the mind. A man of Mr. Wright's age, who has been in some wise identified with newspaper work since his six- teenth year (a period of nearly four decades) may justly be considered a veteran in the journalistic field. The survival of the fittest is as true in journalism as it is in any other vocation, and the surest warrant of a safe and sound policy in a community is continued growth and constant renewal of popular sup- port and confidence. Mr. Wright, as the pres- ent owner and editor of the Southeast Missou- rian, is to be congratulated no more on the manifest signs of prosperity in his journalis- tic undertaking than on the assurance of the hearty good will and esteem of his readers.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 2, 1856, Mr. Wright is one of the seven children of Erie Wright, a Bostonian, whose birth oc- curred in 1825. When a young man Mr. Erie Wright came west to St. Louis, there made the acquaintance of Miss Louise Cruchon, a young French girl, whose birth took place on the 30th day of September, 1830, in Paris, France, and subsequently (in 1849) the couple were married. In course of time chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wright, three of whom died young, while three daughters and one son are living today.
At the age of five Edward Wright was de-
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prived of a father's care, before he had fully realized what a father's affection meant, but his mother did her best to take the place of both parents with her only son and daughters. The lad attended the public school of St. Louis until he had attained his sixteenth year, when he was apprenticed to a printer who was also the publisher of The Missouri Cash Book of Jackson, Missouri. On completing his four years' apprenticeship he worked on different papers throughout Southeastern Missouri ; was in Kennett, where he worked on the first paper of Dunklin county, the Kennett Advance; was employed on a paper in Cape Girardeau, and changed locations in this manner until 1880. At that time he came to New Madrid, where he formed an alliance with Mr. Allen, the present editor of the Rec- ord, and at that time the holder of a public of- fice which necessitated his being absent from New Madrid most of the time, leaving to his collaborator the sole responsibility of the pa- per. Mr. Wright was fully equal to the emer- gency, a fact which his long continuance with the paper evinces. In 1909 Mr. Wright bought the Southeast Missourian, a weekly paper published every Thursday, non-parti- san in its character and which he has since successfully conducted. The increasing circu- lation of this weekly, combined with the strong, forceful articles it contains, are testi- monials to the abilities of Mr. Wright in the way of conducting a paper. The State Press Association finds a helpful member in Mr. Wright; the Southeastern Missouri Press As- sociation is now out of existence, but during its life, Mr. Wright was its able president.
On the 1st day of October, 1884, Mr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Cora Grover, daughter of Benjamin F. and Anna (Ferguson) Grover, of Adams county, Illi- nois, where Miss Cora was born September 12, 1857. In the course of time Mr. and Mrs. Wright became the parents of four children : Gillian, born on Christmas day, 1885, who did not survive her first year; Grover, whose birth occurred October 1, 1887, who married Jessie Elder and now resides in Blytheville, Arkan- sas; Mamie, the date of whose nativity is Sep- temher 28, 1889; and Erie, bearing the name of his paternal grandfather and his aunt, who was horn on the 7th day of September, 1894. Mrs. Wright, an accomplished musician, play- ing hoth piano and organ, began her musical education at a very tender age ; she early com- menced playing the organ and for the past forty years has been the organist of her
church, both she and her husband holding membership with the Presbyterians. Mrs. Wright is also in sympathy with her hus- band's fraternal achievements, and is herself a member of the Maccabees. Mr. Wright is a Mason-a member of the Council-one of its Royal and Select Masters. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all the chairs twice, has been a noble grand twice, and is at present vice-presi- dent of the Southeastern Missouri Odd Fel- lows Association. He is a prominent mem- ber of the Tribe of Redmen, being deputy great sachem of New Madrid for that frater- nal order.
Even as Mr. Wright's father laid down his life for the aid of Missouri, the son has been no less loyal; he has devoted his time, his energy and his talents for the betterment of his native state; for a period of thirteen years he served in the capacity of city clerk, and in the interests of education he has for years been on the board of directors of public schools, where he is today the secretary of this body. If Mr. Wright were a less capable jour- nalist he would nevertheless be prominent in his fraternal connection; while if he belonged to no secret orders his achievements in the civic and educational line would still be suffi- cient to win him a place of honor in this book.
CHARLES MANLEY PRITCHARD. It has been Mr. Pritchard's privilege to watch the growth of Dunklin county from a wilderness and a home of wild beasts to a region of fertile farms and a prosperous commercial center with all the advantages of schools and the many appliances of modern civilization. And not only to watch this development but to be a power in promoting it has been his privi- lege and his pleasure.
Mr. Pritchard's parents came from Tennes- see to Missouri in 1860, when their son Charles Manley was fourteen years old. They had intended to go to Arkansas, but the war was going on fiercely there by the time they reached Missouri, so they stopped in Dunklin county, settling near what is now the town of Manley. The elder Pritchard was a school- teacher and was several years justice of peace in the county at a time when there were but one or two in its boundaries. Schools in those days were subscription schools and very few in number.
C. M. Pritchard lived at home until he was seventeen years old. At that age he wedded Rachael D. Forsythe and went to farming for
CHARLES M. PRITCHARD
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himself. His first farm was one of eighty acres and he lived on it for ten years. When Mr. Pritchard settled upon this land it was a trackless wilderness, in the midst of which he cut out a small clearing and put up a log- cabin. In this clearing Mr. Pritchard found many bones of Indians buried only under the leaves, which had fallen on what had proba- bly been their last battle-field. The Indians were just leaving the region at the time when Mr. Pritchard came to Manley and he was acquainted with a Choctaw chief, Chilleteaw. This personage of the red race was one of the last of his tribe to leave and he became partly civilized. Mr. Pritchard used to watch him grind up his corn on top of an old stump and make his bread in the ashes. Mr. Pritchard's daughter. Frances Cordelia, and two sons, Co- lumbus E. and Thomas E., were born on this place.
Mr. Pritchard cleared his eighty acres and brought it under cultivation and began to ac- quire more and more land. He sold his first farm to a man named Rayburn for four hun- dred dollars. Before selling it he moved to the place he now owns and where he has lived since 1875. At the time he sold his first place he owned about five hundred acres- all the land around Manley. At that time the country was full of game and wild ani- mals. As Mr. Pritchard was a great hunter. he enjoyed keeping his family in venison and other game. Indeed his children were fed chiefly on wild meat, Mr. Pritchard says. Some aspects of a good hunting country are not so pleasant as this abundance of choice food. For instance, the wolves used to chase the dogs under the house every night and Mrs. Pritchard narrowly escaped being killed by panthers several different times. They were so hold that she was obliged to bar the doors to keep them out of the house.
Mr. Pritchard and Rachel Forsythe Pritch- ard, his wife, had four children, who are now living in this county on lands adjoining their father's home place. He has given each of them forty acres and they have added to the gifts in most instances. Mr. Pritchard has sold several forty acre tracts and now his place is about two hundred acres in extent. He has done all the work on this farm from clearing off the timber to putting up the most modern buildings. The land is worth one hundred dollars per acre. He does not do much work on his farm now but rents it out.
His four children are Frances Cordelia. the wife of J. R. Bullock ; Columbus E. ; Thomas
E .; and Arpie O., the wife of J. P. Preslau, whose life is briefly outlined elsewhere in this volume. Rachael Pritchard died in 1899. In the following year Mr. Pritchard married Ellen Malden, who lived until 1908. The present Mrs. Pritchard was Ellen Colvers, a native of Illinois. She was married to Mr. Pritchard in December, 1910.
In 1871 Mr. Pritchard paid one dollar and seventy cents tax for real and personal prop- erty. Thirty-five years later he began busi- ness with his two sons, Columbus and Tom, in a small frame building in Manley. The firm of C. M. Pritchard & Company had a one hundred and fifty-dollar stock of groceries and feed. The following year they added a line of dry goods. Today the establishment occupies a brick building forty by seventy feet, lighted with gas and altogether the best building in town. The stock invoices ten thousand dollars and the business of the store, one of the best country stores in the county, is constantly increasing.
The town of Manley is named for Mr. Pritchard, its first settler, hy whose middle name it is now designated on the map.
HARRY HENDERSON was born at Owensburg, Davis county, Kentucky, in the Centennial year, on November 11. His parents were John T. Henderson, a native of Kentucky, and Laura Kirkland Henderson, born in In- diana. In 1882 the family moved to Missouri, where John Henderson followed his two occu- pations of farming and running a saw-mill.
When Harry . Henderson started in busi- ness for himself he first went into farming. From 1898 until 1905 he ran a general store at Gayoso and after that date conducted the same kind of an establishment at Concord. In 1911 he sold out at Concord and moved to Hayti. Here he built a store building fifty by thirty-five feet and a residence of seven rooms. His business averages about fifteen thousand dollars a year in the general merchandise line which he carries.
Aside from his mercantile business Mr. Henderson has real estate interests in two ad- jacent towns. He also bought eighty acres of land at Hayti and has a hundred and twenty near by. He does general farming and his chief crops are cotton, corn and al- falfa. When he started into business his father gave him five hundred dollars, which Mr. Harry Henderson has paid back some time since. He belongs to the party of Mc- Kinley. Roosevelt and those other presidents
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who have added honor to what its members like to call the "Grand Old Party."
Five children gladden the home of Mr. Henderson and Lona Trautman Henderson, his wife. These are Carter, Warren, Edna and the twins, Rosa and Edith. Miss Traut- man was born in Hayti and became Mrs. Hen- derson in 1902.
THOMAS J. BROWN, a prominent lawyer of New Madrid, has solved the secret of success, which demands concentration-oneness of aim and desire; which demands a certain abnega- tion-a certain disinterestedness. Mr. Brown's professional career is composed of a succession of small successes, which, united, have produced the strong, resourceful char- acter as he is known by the citizens of New Madrid today.
Thomas J. Brown was born December 15, 1873, in Hopkins county, Kentucky, where his father, William B. Brown, has passed the major portion of his life, engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, and where he still resides, a prosperous farmer. Father Brown's birth oc- curred in October, 1845, and the first few years of his life were passed on his father's farm. When he had reached the proper age he attended the district school, where he ob- tained a good, general education, and before its completion the Civil war broke out. The youth was desirous of enlisting, but was too young to join the army at the commencement of hostilities. In 1864, when he was nineteen years of age, he gained admittance into the Union forces, enlisting in the Forty-third Illi- nois Infantry and serving till the company of which he was a member was mustered out, in 1865. On leaving the army he returned to his home in Hopkins county, and the following year was married to Miss Sarah Dever, born in Hopkins county in 1850. To this union four children were born,-Mattie, whose birth occurred April 28, 1870, and who is married to J. W. Ramsey, of Hopkins county, Ken- tucky: Thomas J .; Dora, born March 28, 1877, who died suddenly in church at the age of twenty-one; and Dema, the date of whose birth is May 6, 1881, and who is the wife of T. B. Givens, of Hopkins county, Kentucky. Mr. Brown's political sympathies have ever been with the Republican party, and in a re- ligious way both he and his wife held mem- bership in the Baptist church. He is still an active member, but his wife was summoned to her last rest on the 22nd day of November,
1904, her death occurring in the home where her wedded life had been spent.
Thomas J. Brown, the second child in order of birth and the only son of his parents, re- mained at home under the parental roof until he was eighteen years of age, and during the years that he had attended the district school he had also assisted his father with the work on the farm. When he was eighteen years old he went to school at Providence, Ken- tueky, where he attended the male and female academy of that town. On the completion of his academic course he taught school for a short time, then began the study of law in Princeton, Kentucky, under William Marble, and in the month of June, 1897, he was ad- mitted to the bar of Kentucky. He forthwith commenced his legal practice at Princeton, in partnership with Edward Hubbard, remain- ing in that town until September, 1899, when he came to New Madrid, Missouri. He opened an office alone, but in a few months he went into partnership with his old associate, Ed Hubbard, and in 1908 he formed an alliance with Thomas Gallivan-his partner today. In addition to the large legal practice in which the firm engages, Mr. Brown has become an important factor in the Republican party and is distinguished as being the first presidential elector on the Republican ticket in the Four- teenth district.
On the 4th of October, 1899, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Mamie Gray, born June 16, 1873, a daughter of John and Mary (Jor- dan) Gray. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are now the parents of four children-one boy and three girls-Frances, born September 22, 1901; Thomas J., the date of whose nativity was De- cember 5, 1903; Virginia, whose birth oc- curred October 1, 1906; and Dora L., born January 14, 1909.
Mrs. Brown has many friends in the Epis- copal church, where she is a prominent mem- ber, while her husband is equally well-known and esteemed by his Masonic brethren. His life up to the present time has been filled with hard work, and he is now enjoying the fruits of his labors, although he is by no means ready to sit back and do nothing. In the course of his career he has made money, repu- tation and friends-is both popular and re- spected.
GOAH S. BARNES. Few men as young find themselves so securely ensconced in the esteem and good-will of their associates as Mr. Goah
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S. Barnes, recognized throughout this section of the country as one of Portageville's most enterprising citizens. The future of Mr. Barnes, while yet unwritten, may safely be forecasted as one of increasing financial prosperity and continued honorable service as a public official.
Goah S. Barnes was born in Stewart, Mis- souri, at Barnes Ridge in Pemiscot county, the date of his nativity being January 17, 1876. His parents, James T. and Susan (Neumen) Barnes, were both natives of Shaw- neetown, Illinois, and both passed to their eternal reward at the home in Pemiscot county. For sixteen years Goah S. Barnes at- tended the district schools of Pemiscot before going to Cape Girardeau to take advantage of the state normal school at that place. There he spent four years and was graduated with the class of 1899. His first business venture was a mercantile concern which he conducted at Stewart, Missouri, the same being a fair sized enterprise with a stock valued at seven thousand dollars. He also managed a cotton gin at Stewart during the three years of his stay, prior to coming to Portageville in 1902. As a young man of twenty-two he embarked in the grocery business, and remained in that until he undertook the operation of a saw- mill at Bokerton, Missouri, all the time main- taining his home in Portageville. After eight months he sold his lumber interests, and, re- turning to his home field, he accepted an agency for the Lemp Brewing Company under J. S. Wahl, and was manager for two years. In 1904 he was appointed to the post- mastership, following two years service as a clerk in the service, and for eight years Mr. Barnes' keen business and executive ability and absolute integrity were placed at the dis- posal of the people he served. When he took the position it paid twenty-five dollars a month, and he built it up to the point where it now pays a salary of twelve hundred a year. The Portageville office was the second he had filled, for he was obliged to resign the same office in Stewart, to which he had been ap- pointed in 1899, when he left that place.
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