USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 68
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here, has known hardships and privations, and measured by the difficulties of accom- plishment his career has been notable and he well deserves the esteem which has been given his later years. Both his parents were from Tennessee and brought to this section as chil- dren, where they spent the rest of their lives. His father was prominent in the early public affairs of the county, and held the office of sheriff. A run-away horse terminated his life when his son was a child, and James H. and Mrs. S. J. Harkey are the only ones of his children living in this part of the state.
Mr. Kimbrow was horn at Kennett, June 15, 1856. A few years after his father's death his mother married again, and from the time he was twelve years old he was practically an orphan and all the advantages which he se- cured were the results of his own ambition and hard work. He attended a few terms of the subscription schools then in vogue in this part of the country, and his eagerness to learn advanced him more rapidly than many others who had none of the cares of self sup- port. The first free school that he ever knew of was at Nesbit. He worked out by the month when a boy and young man, and gradually got ahead in the world. When he was twenty- six he married, at Nesbit, Miss Lena M. Har- key. For nearly thirty years they lived a very happy married life, and of all the hard- ships his career has known his severest loss was the death of his beloved companion in June, 1911. She had worked with him in the acquirement of their modest fortune, and both father and children have lost their best friend. By years of labor and good manage- ment their home estate now consists of one hundred and twenty-two and a half acres, with a comfortable dwelling in an attractive grove, and the place is now valued at a hun- dred dollars an acre or more. The sons now conduct the farm.
The children are: Annie, Belle, Ethel, Bascomb, Bert, Nettie and Thelma. Mr. Kim- brow is a Democrat in politics, and has taken an active part in the local Methodist church. Fraternally he is a member of the Horners- ville lodge of Masons.
WILLIAM H. BARHAM. Henry county, Ten- nessee, is Mr. Barham's native place and he was born on November 27, 1870. He had scarcely any chance to go to school, but spent his time working on a farm until he was twenty-one years of age.
At the age of nineteen Mr. Barham was
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married to Hetty Gregson, whose parents were William M. and Eliza Kemp Gregson, of Henry county, Tennessee. Mrs. Barham was born September 3, 1872, and she bore her husband three children: Eva, born Janu- ary 22, 1891; Deering, December 10, 1894; and Louise, June 26, 1902. Mrs. Barham died at the home at Portageville, December 20, 1911, aged thirty-nine years, three months and seventeen days.
On the first of January, 1902, Mr. Barham moved to Malden, Missouri. There he worked for his father, selling whiskey until the town went "dry." In 1904 he came to Portage- ville, and entered the employ of Mitchel and Weeks. Four years later he bought out his employers and has continued in the business in the same place since that date.
DR. L. S. MICHIE. Covington, Missouri, was the birthplace of Dr. L. S. Michie, and Pemiscot county has been his home all his life. He was born November 11, 1870, and re- ceived his medical education in the Memphis Hospital Medical College, from which he re- ceived his degree in 1895. After graduation Dr. Michie returned to Pemiscot county and located at Cooter. There he remained for fif- teen years and built up a large practice in the vicinity. Besides his professional work he was active in many enterprises for the de- velopment of the town. He had a cotton gin there and carried extensive interests in cot- ton. Another of his enterprises was a store handling drugs and general merchandise, but he sold it when he moved from Cooter to Tyler. When the railroad was built into Coo- ter Dr. Michie gave the corporation the right of way and during the entire time of his resi- dence in the town he was instrumental in pro- moting the development of the place in all possible ways.
Dr. Michie continued his studies in medi- cine for two years at Warrensburg and Kings- ville, Missouri, and pursued a literary course there as well. When he graduated he was in debt, but by his own efforts he has become one of the substantial members of the com- mercial circle of this county. In 1910 Dr. Michie moved to Tyler. Here he owns a resi- dence, situated on an acre of ground and he has a general store and a drug business. He is having a flourishing trade in all lines which he handles. He has built a gin in Tyler, which has a capacity of twenty tons a day. This is the only one in the county operated by gasoline and it has a fifty horse power engine.
He is extensively interested in farm proper- ties both near Cooter and in Pierre, South Dakota.
Dr. Michie was first married at Memphis, in 1899, to Miss Anna Morris, of that city. She died in October, 1907, leaving four chil- dren : Thomas F., Marion Sims, Charles H. and T. A., Junior. In 1910 Dr. Michie mar- ried his present wife, who is also a native of Memphis. Her maiden name was Ida MeMil- lan.
In the lodges of Cooter Dr. Michie is a mem- ber of the Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. In his profession he keeps abreast the new movements and maintains his connection with the medical associations of the county, the state and with the national association. Both as a physician and as a business man the Doctor is regarded as one of the most pro- gressive and enterprising men in the commu- nity.
WILLIAM F. PERKINS. There is no man, probably, in Southeastern Missouri that has a more practical and definite knowledge of the lumber interests of our country than William F. Perkins who as a boy went into the Michi- gan lumber camps and has ever since been identified with the lumber industry, at the present time being superintendent for the Wisconsin Lumber Company at Deering, Mis- souri, having full charge of the firm's af- fairs at this point. A son of Paul B. and Katherine (Shell) Perkins, he was born in Alleghany county, New York, April 2, 1862.
When a child William F. Perkins was taken by his parents to southern Michigan, and when twelve years old began working in the lumber camps in northern Michigan. Ere he had reached man's estate he was familiar with the diversified interests of that vast tim- bered region, and was there a resident until 1905, being all of the time associated with the development and advancement of the lumber industry. Locating then in Forrest City, Arkansas, Mr. Perkins was for four years as- sociated with the Forrest City Manufacturing Company. Coming to Deering, Pemiscot county, Missouri, in January, 1910, he ac- cepted his present position as superintendent of the Wisconsin Lumber Company, an office for which he is especially adapted, both by knowledge and experience, and which he is filling with credit to himself and to the emi- nent satisfaction of the firm which employs him.
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Mr. Perkins married in 1883, in northern Michigan, Cora E. Dye, and to them four children have been born, namely: Wayne B., twenty-four years of age, assists his father; Bessie, who is employed in the office of the Forrest City Box Company, at Forrest City, Arkansas; Mildred, with her father; and Katherine, a pupil in the Caruthersville high school. Fraternally Mr. Perkins is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Forrest City, Arkansas; and of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons at Hayti, Missouri. Mrs. Perkins united with the Methodist Episcopal church at Forrest City, Arkansas, and is a regular attendant of the Methodist church at Deering.
I. NEWTON MAXWELL. Standing prominent among the intelligent and thriving agricultur- ists of Pemiscot county is I. Newton Maxwell, of Steele, a large landholder and the proprie- tor of a well-kept farm, which in its appoint- ments and improvements compares favorably with any in the neighborhood. He was born March 4, 1867, in Camden, Benton county, Tennessee. His father, the late William Max- well, moved with his family to Pemiscot county, Missouri, many years ago, and was here engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in 1886. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Woods, four children were born as follows: Docia, who died in childhood; Susan, who married William Becker, died at the early age of eighteen years; Lon, who owned a farm near that of his brother, died of meningitis in 1899; and I. Newton.
Accompanying his parents to Pemiscot county when a lad, I. Newton Maxwell as- sisted his father in clearing a farm from its original wildness, remaining at home until twenty years old. Starting in life for himself in 1887, he bought forty acres of land near Steele, and in 1888 bought eighty acres more, all of which is now included within the limits of his present farm. Successful in his under- takings, Mr. Maxwell made other wise invest- ments in realty, and now owns four hundred acres of rich and fertile land and has a half interest in another tract of one hundred and sixty acres lying in Virginia township. He is now serving as deputy constable, but dur- ing the two previous years he was deputy sheriff of Pemiscot county.
On April 17, 1886, Mr. Maxwell married Alice Coleman, a daughter of Peter W. Cole-
man, an extensive land owner in Pemiscot county, and of their union four children have been born, namely : Elma, born in 1896, is a pupil in the public schools; Zula whose cloth- ing accidentally caught fire on February 7, 1904, died a few days later from the burns re- ceived her death occurring February 27, 1904; Brooksie, and Lola V. Fraternally Mr. Maxwell is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Caruthersville; and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Hayti; and he carries insurance in the Mis- souri Life Insurance Company.
ISAAC H. LEE, now the prosperous lumber- man of New Madrid, whose prosperity is not without significance since it means the stimu- lation of business in the town as well, is only one of the many examples that this country can show of men whose fortunes are of their own carving. He was born in troublous war times, 1863, in Alexander county, Illinois, to Elisha and Lucinda (Hunter) Lee. As a boy he attended the log school house of the dis- trict, but on the whole he may be said to have educated himself. He was still a small boy when he was orphaned, his father having laid down his life for the Union as a member of the Federal army, and his mother dying when he was but seven years old.
In 1878 his guardian took him to Kansas, where he obtained some practical experience in the drug business by working in a drug store, and later he completed the course in pharmacy at the Pharmacy school in Law- rence, Kansas, from which institution he was graduated in 1885.
His intention at that time was to become an independent druggist, but after clerking in a drug store for nine years his health failed him and he made his start in the timber busi- ness. In June, 1908, he came to New Madrid and built his present hoop mill, which has a capacity of forty thousand hoops per day and employs fifty men in the mill, doing a busi- ness of seventy-five thousand dollars a year. The business has grown constantly, due to the energy, application and sound business head of Mr. Lee. Besides being a stockholder, di- rector, vice-president and manager of the New Madrid Hoop and Lumber Company, Mr. Lee is the owner of a farm in Illinois.
In 1904 Mr. Lee was married to Miss Mary Craig of Illinois. They have no children. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, the Ancient Order of United Work-
W.C. Whiteakes
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men and was formerly a Knight of Pythias. Politically he gives his allegiance to the "Grand Old Party." His wife is a Baptist.
JUDGE WILLIAM C. WHITEAKER, who is in- dustriously engaged in the prosecution of a calling upon which the support and wealth of the nation largely depends, and in which he is meeting with deserved success, has been a resident of Dunklin county since a lad of three years, when his father, Myles C. White- aker, came here as a pioneer.
Myles Whiteaker was the son of John White- aker, who was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1780. The father of John Whiteaker was killed in the Revolutionary war and his mother then married a man named Wilson. When quite young John Whiteaker went to Virginia and lived with a paternal uncle until the age of twenty, when he came West and settled in Southern Illinois. He was a mem- ber of the first state senate after Illinois was admitted as a state. From the best informa- tion John Whiteaker was a grandson of Capt. John Whiteaker who commanded a company in Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary war. March 5, 1807. John Whiteaker married Catherine Hargraves. He left Illinois about 1837 and came to Bollinger countv. Missouri. March 1. 1847, he came to Dunklin county and died a few days later on March 7th.
Born in Union county, Illinois, February 25, 1820, Myles C. Whiteaker came to South- eastern Missouri soon after the organization of Dunklin county, which was in 1845, and in 1846, as soon as the land was surveyed, bought one hundred and twenty acres lying one and one-fourth miles north of the farm now owned and occupied by his son William, and sub- sequently pre-empted another tract of one hundred and twenty acres. With a stout heart and a strong arm, he set to work to clear and improve a homestead, and as his means increased he added other lands, becoming an extensive landholder. He met with much suc- cess, and remained on his well-improved estate until his death, January 6, 1887. He married Barbara Seabaugh, who was born in Bollinger county, Missouri, in 1818, and died on the home farm, in Dunklin county, January 13, 1882.
Born April 19, 1843, in Bollinger county, Missouri, William C. Whiteaker was brought up in pioneer times and had very meager school advantages, his education having been mainly self acquired after he had reached mature years. During the civil war he served
nearly three years in the Confederate army, belonging to the Fourth Missouri Artillery, commanded by Marmaduke, being elected gun sergeant. He was ill ten days at one time, and was three times captured by the Federal forces, but his imprisonment was of short dur- ation, as he made a successful escape each time that he was taken prisoner. In 1866, at the time of his marriage, Mr. Whiteaker began life for himself as a farmer, his father pre- senting him with one hundred and twenty acres of land, ten acres of which were im- proved. Laboring with diligence and perse- verance, he placed the land under a good state of cultivation, and from time to time invested in other tracts of land, having owned thirteen hundred acres in all. He has now title to six hundred acres, three hundred of which are well improved and highly productive. His land is well fenced and drained, and finely adapted to the raising of corn and hay, his principal crops. Mr. Whiteaker also raises many cattle, keeping about fifty head, and has two hundred Poland China hogs, and about four hundred chickens. He formerly paid much attention to the breeding of mules and horses, but has now only fifteen head. He is a stockholder of St. Francis Bank, in St. Francis, Arkansas, and as its president, and one of its directors, is rendering fine service.
Politically Mr. Whiteaker affiliates with the Democratic party, and for years served as county judge, at the same time being presi- dent of the county court. Ever interested in educational matters, he was school director for twenty years. Fraternally he is a member of Campbell Lodge, No. 212, A. F. & A. M., in which he has passed all the chairs; and of St. Francis, Arkansas, lodge of the I. O. O. F.
Mr. Whiteaker has been three times mar- ried. He married first, in 1866, Emma Ed- ward, who was born in 1854, and died in 1872, leaving two children, namely: Ashley, whose death occurred April 1, 1893; and A. D., who is engaged in the lumber business at St. Francis, Arkansas, married Grace MeCosky. Mr. Whiteaker married second Caroline Geer, who was born in 1859, and died in 1888. Two children were born of their union, Flora, wife of Silas Ramsey, of St. Francis, and John, who died in 1888. Mr. Whiteaker married for his third wife, in 1893, Lou Welker, who was born in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, in 1861, and they are the parents of three children, as follows: Edith, Anna, and Wil- liam C., Jr., all at home.
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FRANCIS M. BAIRD. Among the self-reliant and courageous men of Pemiscot county who through their own efforts have arisen from a state of comparative poverty to one of inde- pendence is Francis M. Baird, of Hayti, a prosperous farmer of Pemiscot county. He was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, in 1871, being a brother of E. D. Baird, in whose sketch, which appears elsewhere in this work, a brief account of his parents, Thomas and Kate (Michael) Baird, may be found.
As a youth Francis M. Baird attended the public schools of Bullitt county, Kentucky, and assisted his father on the farm, remain- ing at home until becoming of age. He subse- quently worked in Ferguson's soap factory at Louisville, Kentucky, two years, and later tended bar in that city for an equal length of time. Coming to Missouri in 1897, Mr. Baird was employed as a farm laborer in Dunklin county for two years, after which he purchased his present farm of forty acres in Hayti, Pemiscot county, where he is carrying on general farming successfully, raising al- falfa, cotton, horses, mules and hogs.
Mr. Baird was united in marriage in 1901, with Melissa Burns, who was born in August, 1881, in Bullitt county, Kentucky, where her parents, Sanford and Eliza (Shelton) Burns, are now living, her father having moved there when a young man from Nelson county, his native place. Mr. and Mrs. Baird have one child, Lida E., whose birth occurred Novem- ber 16, 1907.
Politically Mr. Baird affiliates with the Democratic party. Fraternally he belongs to the Improved Order of Red Men and to the Woodmen of the World. Religiously both he and his wife are faithful members of the Bap- tist church.
CAP B. RICHARDS. Of Virginiau stock, Cap B. Richards was born in Culpeper county, that state, just prior to the devastation of the southern states by the horrors of civil war, in the year 1859. He is the son of Rufus and Cordelia (Foster) Richards, hoth native born Virginians. Like so many of the old prosper- ons slave-holding families of the south, the Civil war meant utter ruin for the Richards family. Early in the war period they left their native state and came to Cape Girar- dean, where the father engaged himself as a carpenter and contractor.
The family misfortunes meant hardship for the boy, too, and after the age of thirteen, he never had another chance to attend school.
He grew to manhood at New Madrid, and he went to Pine Bluff to work about 1883 and there remained, gaining in knowledge of the world what he was losing in the way of school room and books. After eleven years in Pine Bluff he returned to New Madrid and in 1894 engaged in the undertaking business, bringing the first hearse to this county. In 1907 he purchased a hotel which burned the following year. He soon rebuilt, however, and the pres- ent building was erected on the old site, a double store-room, one sixteen by sixty and the other twenty-four by sixty feet, with a residence adjoining. He also continued the undertaking business, combining it with a stock of picture moulding, glass, paints and the like, in which he handles a very satisfac- tory volume of trade.
In April, 1909, Mr. Richards established a household of his own by his marriage to Miss Mary Watson, who was born in Jefferson City, Missouri. She was the daughter of James C. and Mary (Patterson) Watson, the former of whom was born in Saint Charles, Missouri, in 1833, when Missouri was still the frontier country, and passed away in 1881, and the latter of whom was born in Powhatan county, Virginia, November 26, 1836, and sur- vived until August 9, 1910. Mrs. Richards received her early education in the Jefferson City high school, and taught the district school in New Madrid county for eleven years. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Richards has been blessed with two children, Cap B., Jr., born June 4. 1903, and Lucien A., born November 22, 1905. Mr. Richards is a strong fraternity man, and is affiliated with the fol- lowing organizations,-the Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of the Maccabees, the Woodmen of the World, the American Pro- tective League, and he is a Knight of Honor, while his wife is a Lady of Honor. Mrs. Richards is a devout communicant of the Catholic church.
Mr. Richards accords his political alle- giance to the Democratic party and at one time he filled the position of coroner of the county. His wife also has rendered public service to the community, at one time having been appointed hy Governor Stevens to fill an unexpired term as school commissioner, in which office she served ably and well.
TOM MARTIN. Mr. Martin's father came to the central part of Pemiscot county in 1856. A little later in the same year he moved to the northern part of the county, where Tom
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Martin was born. The mother lived but a short time after his birth, and after her death Mr. Martin, Tom's father, went back to Ken- tucky, his home previous to his coming to Pemiscot county. Upon returning to his na- tive state he married again, and the second wife was a good mother to her step-son, Tom, and the other children. Schools were poor in Kentucky where they lived and the boy had little chance to attend.
At the age of sixteen years Mr. Martin and an older brother came back to Pemiscot county. For eight years he worked on the farms in the region and then married and moved to the place where he now lives. His wife was Katie Turner, with whom he lived until her death eleven years later, in 1891. She bore him one child, Robert, who is now married and living near home. The forty acres of Robert Mar- tin's farm were a gift from his father. He has built his own house and barn.
Mr. Tom Martin's first purchase was a tract of fifty-three acres. He had rented a few years before buying. He has added gradually to his original place and at one time owned ninety-three acres. At present he has this amount less the forty he gave his son-fifty-three acres-and raises corn, cot- ton and alfalfa upon it. In addition to what he owns, Mr. Martin also rents eighty acres.
In 1891 Miss Mattie Baugh, a Tennessean by birth and rearing, was united in marriage to Mr. Tom Martin. They have one child, Sterling by name. Mr. and Mrs. Martin are members of the Methodist church, South. In political convictions Mr. Martin holds with the Democratic party.
PINKNEY MARTIN MAYFIELD. Mayfield is a name widely and honorably known in South- eastern Missouri, where it has had and con- tinues to have so many representatives dis- tinguished both in professional and commer- cial lines.
John Jefferson Mayfield, the father of Pinkney and Amon Mayfield, was born in Bollinger county, Missouri, in October, 1840, and is still living in the county, a very active worker, though past seventy. John Mayfield has always been a farmer and stock raiser, though during the war he was a member of the Cape Girardeau militia. He was married in 1860 to Sarah M. Williams, also born in this county and still living with the husband of her youth. Nine of their twelve children lived to maturity. Four of the sons have be- come physicians. These are: Eli, who mar-
ried Mattie Skidmore and resides in Arkan- sas; John J., junior, of Jackson, Missouri; and Amon and Pinkney M., of this county. Two other sons, James and Lee, are still liv- ing on the home place. Both are married, James to Ellen Masters and Lee to Octa Yount. George and Marshall live in Bollin- ger county and are engaged in stock raising and farming. Mrs. George Mayfield was Sarah Sample. George is also a merchant. Marshall's wife was Amanda Bess before her marriage. The Mayfield men are generally Democrats in politics, as is the father, John J. Sarah Williams Mayfield is a member of the Christian church.
Dr. Pinkney Mayfield followed the custom- ary course of his generation and worked on his father's farm until seventeen years of age, attending school in the meantime. He gradu- ated from Will Mayfield College at Marble Hill, Missouri, in 1896, and there spent two years in teaching at Hurricane and Miller- ville, Missouri.
The Doctor began his study of medicine in 1899, at the same college where his brother Amon took his course, the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons. Pinkney May- field prepared to be a general practitioner and received his diploma in 1903. Upon com- pleting his studies at St. Louis he came to Portageville and has practiced here ever since. He has an office on Main street.
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