USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 71
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111
east Missouri, besides three business houses and several small residences that he rented.
Although Dr. Tribble was a true and loyal Democrat, he had no political desires. He might have been a successful politician had he entered the field, for he was a natural organ- izer and had the gift of making big ideas realities. He with two or three other citizens built and supported the Christian church. It was he who advocated a law to keep stock en- closed. This movement was several times de- feated, but with the courage of his convic- tions he kept at it and finally educated the people so that it became a popular feature and was carried. It was he who laid the first brick sidewalk at Bloomfield, at which the peo- ple made derision, saying that he was too good to walk on common ground. Later they found it necessary to admit that it is such as he that bring about advancement. In other matters innumerable he took a similar active interest.
It was Dr. Tribble who brought the first touring car to Bloomfield, and indeed to Stod- dard county, this being purchased in 1909. Enterprising as he was, he decided to open up an automobile line between Bloomfield and Dexter, and within six months others emulated his example. Mrs. Tribble was the first woman in the county to drive a machine, and his son, then but fourteen years of age, was the first boy to master the intricacies of mo- toring, his machine being a Ford. He also took a helpful part in completing the gravel road between Dexter and Bloomfield. An in- teresting and rather amusing episode was the receipt of a threatening letter from persons residing on a certain road, the epistle declar- ing that he must keep his automobile off the road in question, and that if found upon said road he might guess what would happen. Mrs. Tribble took it upon herself to find out and drove her machine there at night, but without developments.
Dr. Tribble had a peculiarly happy nature and found a source of greatest happiness in the woods, in which he loved to wander, studying the flowers and insects, stretching himself beneath the great trees and living close to nature's heart. He loved to take long walks and when he grew less strong to ride deep into the country. The choice of a loca- tion for his home was characteristic, his house being set upon a raw knoll which he set out in trees from the woods. His house was one of the most beautiful in Southeastern Missouri and required fourteen months for the build- ing. The architectural plans were based upon
Jasper n. Qeuch
1085
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
his own suggestions and the result, a lovely classical Colonial structure, is the pride of Bloomfield. The knoll upon which it stands is twelve feet above the street and from the third floor porch the country can he sur- veyed for a distance of twenty miles. The in- terior is all in hard wood finish and the ar- tistic furniture the Doctor had made to spe- cial order, the style corresponding to that of the house. He had looked forward for a dec- ade to having an ideal home and it is indeed regrettable that he could not longer live to enjoy it. He had believed that this home, Maple Terrace, would be his tarrying place when he had retired from the more strenuous activities of life. His death occurred after a lingering illness, but though the mortal part of him has been laid away, it may well be said of him that "to live in hearts we leave be- hind, is not to die."
Dr. Tribble contracted an ideally happy marriage when, on November 9, 1893, he was united to Miss Pearl Duncan, of Lex- ington, Missouri, daughter of W. W. and Julia (Jones) Duncan. Their union was blessed by the birth of four children,-Edison, Bess, Gladys and Noble. Gladys is deceased, her death having occurred at the age of a year and a half. Dr. and Mrs. Tribble were zeal- ous and generous members of the Christian church and both were held in high regard in the community which they loved sufficiently to make their home, although familiar with many other locations. Mrs. Tribble is a woman of admirable character and attain- ments and the children will be reared to the ideals of their father.
The ensuing tribute was paid to Dr. Trib- ble by a local publication at the time of his demise : "He was a man of exemplary habits, a high sense of personal honor and in all the walks of life an upright and useful citizen and Christian gentleman, whose death will be sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances."
JASPER NEWTON PUNCH. The public-spir- ited and enterprising citizens of Stoddard county have a worthy representative in the person of Jasper Newton Punch, of Bloom- field, who has served as county clerk for six- teen years, from 1895 to 1910. inclusive, and is now identified with the Little River Valley Land Company, which is dealing extensively in real estate. A son of Newton A. Punch, he was born November 10, 1866, in Stoddard county, Missouri, near Asherville, and but
fourteen miles from the county-seat. His grandfather. William Punch, came from North Carolina to Missouri about 1840, locat- ing in Wayne county, on the Saint Francois river, where he carried on general farming until his death, which occurred a few years later, while he was yet in the prime of life.
Born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, Newton A. Punch came with his parents to Wayne county, Missouri, when a boy of seven years, and was there reared to manhood. Succeeding to the independent occupation of his ancestors, he made farming his life occu- pation. He served in the Confederate army under General Price throughout the larger part of the Civil war, with his command sur- rendering at Shreveport, Louisiana. He after- wards engaged in agricultural pursuits near Asherville, living there until his death, September 29, 1903, aged three score and ten years. He married Lucy Ann Stacey, who was born in Tennessee, a daughter of John F. Stacey, who settled on the Saint Francois river, just west of Asherville, Missouri, in the fifties. He afterwards removed to Arkansas. but later returned to Stoddard county, and died near Asherville, in 1873 or 1874. Lucy Ann (Stacey) Punch died December 2, 1876, when but thirty-eight years of age. Of their children, three grew to years of maturity, namely : Jasper Newton; Andrew M., who died at the age of twenty-three years, taught school in early manhood, and at the time of his death was a cadet at West Point; and Mary E., who was educated at the State Normal school, taught school in Stoddard county several years, and died at the age of twenty- eight years, in Bloomfield, where she was then teaching. Newton A. Punch married for his second wife Mary J. White, who survives him, and is the mother of three children, as fol- lows: Jesse, living on the old home farm; Robert L., a teacher and farmer, living in Leora. Missouri : and Samuel A .. a teacher in the advanced grades of the public schools.
Taking advantage of every offered oppor- tunity for advancing his education while young, Jasper Newton Punch began to teach school when eighteen years of age, and taught school or worked on the home farm until twenty-eight years old. He completed the short course at the Cape Girardeau Normal school, and received a state certificate, but did not care to make teaching his life work. In 1894 Mr. Punch was elected county clerk on the Democratie ticket, and was three times re-elected to the same office, serving in all six-
1086
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
teen consecutive years, performing the duties of his office efficiently and punctually and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He is now devoting his energies to the real estate business, as a member of the Little River Valley Land Company having extensive and heavy transactions in realty and he is also secretary and treasurer of the Stoddard County Trust Company.
Fraternally Mr. Punch stands high in the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, being past master of his lodge, which he has represented in the Grand Lodge; a member of Poplar Bluff Chapter, No. 114, R. A. M .; of Poplar Bluff Council, R. & S. M .; of Cape Girardeau Commandery, No. 55, K. T .; and of the Valley of Saint Louis Consistory.
Mr. Punch married Soonie N. Wright, who was born in Alabama, but was brought up and educated in Texas, being graduated from the Sam Houston Normal school, and afterwards teaching school in Texas for a while previous to her marriage.
ORREN L. DAVIS. John Davis, the father of Orren L. Davis, was born in England and lived there until he was twenty years of age, when he came to America and settled on a farm in Warren county, Pennsylvania. There he lived until his death, in 1859, when he succumbed to consumption and left his wife and three children. Mrs. Davis was born in Utica, New York. She lived eleven years after her husband's death, and in 1870 passed away on the same farm where her husband had died. The daughter, Maria, and Noah, the other son, both settled in Warren county, Pennsylvania.
Orren Davis was born in 1840, on May 20. Until he was fifteen he worked on his father's farm. From that time until 1862 he worked on the farms of the region, but at twenty-one he felt it his duty to enlist in the army of the Union, and accordingly went into C. E. Bald- win's Independent Company of Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he served nine months.
After the war Mr. Davis went into a jewelry store in Corey, Pennsylvania, and learned the business For three years he stayed with his employer, getting a thorough knowledge of what he has adopted as his chosen occupation. At Youngsville, Pennsyl- vania, Mr. Davis began business for himself, and remained there until September, 1880, when he came to Piedmont, Missouri. For eighteen years he was engaged in the jewelry business in Wayne county. He spent about a year in Kennett and in Du Quoin, Arkansas.
In July, 1898, he came to New Madrid, and since that date has been identified with the business in this county, where he is one of the oldest of his trade.
Mr. Davis' marriage took place in Pennsyl- vania, in 1866. His bride was Amanda Stan- ford, born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, in 1843. Amanda Davis died in Piedmont, in 1882, and is buried in that town. She left two children, Gertrude, born in 1867, who died at the age of nineteen, and Maude, born January 7, 1882, living with her father in New Madrid. In 1903 Mr. Davis was again married, his bride being Julia Haines, one of seven children of Abraham and Margaret (Bleirns) Haines. Mrs. Davis was born at Falmouth, Kentucky, where her parents had moved from Miami county, Ohio. Both she and Mr. Davis are members of the Eastern Star and are communicants of the Presby- terian church. Mr. Davis is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
In the matter of politics he is an Inde- pendent-one of that ever growing body who are responsible for so much that is good in both the old parties. He votes for the best man, irrespective of the organization with which he is connected. Always keenly inter- ested in his business, Mr. Davis maintains his membership in both the state and the Na- tional American Retail Jewelers' Association.
ELMER S. WORKMAN, four years alderman of Portageville and nine years school direct- or, is one of the leading property owners and business men of the town. He has lived here since he was fourteen years of age, at which time he came with his parents, James A. and Mary A. (Inman). Workman, from Indiana. The father was born in Indiana and the mother in Ohio. James Workman is a Pres- hyterian preacher, still living in Portageville and still blessed with the companionship of the wife of his youth.
Elmer Workman was born in 1868 and at- tended the district schools of Indiana until he came to Missouri in 1882. He continued to go to school several years after coming to this county, helping his father on the farm in the meantime. When he started out for himself, at the age of about twenty, he rented a farm. He continued to rent for twelve years, then, as soon as he was able, he bought two hun- dred acres of land. Mr. Workman sold one hundred and sixty acres of this and bought eighty more. He now farms one hundred and eighty acres of his own and one hundred and
1087
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
sixty acres which he rents. He is engaged in general farming, having considerable live stock and sixty-five Poland China thorough- bred hogs.
In December, 1908, Mr. Workman went into the livery business in Portageville and con- ducted the undertaking successfully for two years, when he sold it out, because he did not like it. He is now engaged in handling and shipping timber, as well as in the regular blacksmithing work. Mr. Workman also buys and sells stock, shipping it out in carload lots. His holdings in city property include two houses and three acres of lots, and a block of five more lots, with a new house on it, in resi- dence property, and three lots with a livery barn in the business section.
Mrs. Elmer Workman is a native of Por- tageville, where she was born February 23, 1876. She is the daughter of George Young, who passed his life here, and of Ellen Lesieur Young, also born in Portageville. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Workman consists of their two children, James H. and Hazel M., and a niece of Mrs. Workman's, Myrtie Young, of whom Mr. Workman is guardian. Mr. Work- man's lodge is the Woodmen of the World; their church, the Presbyterian. In politics he is a Democrat, but does not find time to take active part in political matters apart from serving in the capacities mentioned, which are hardly to be classed in the sphere of politics.
CLAY A. MOSELEY. Worthy of especial mention in a work of this character is Clay A. Moseley, one of the foremost citizens of Bloomfield, and active in the promotion of its business interests, being vice-president of the Bloomfield Bank and president of the Vindi- cator Publishing Company. He was born June 8, 1860, in Marion, Alabama, a son of Milton A. Moseley, who enlisted in a company of Alabama Cavalry during the Civil war, and was killed while serving in the Confeder- ate army, in 1864.
At the age of fourteen years Clay A. Mose- ley came with his mother to Missouri, and for two years lived in Wayne county, the ensuing seven years being spent at Van Buren, Carter county, where he followed the printer's trade, having learned type-setting in Wayne county. Although but sixteen years old when he set- tled in Van Buren, he established the Van Buren Current-Local, which he built up into a bright, clean and newsy sheet, which is still having a prosperous existence. Selling his paper, Mr. Moseley came from Van Buren
to Bloomfield to assume the editorship and management of the Vindicator, owned by Ligon Jones, and two years later, in 1885, bought the paper, of which he had sole charge until 1910, when he organized the Vindicator Publishing Company, a stock concern, capital- ized at $6,000. Mr. Moseley owns one-third of the stock, and is president of the company. The Vindicator is a Democratic organ, and champions all movements calculated to bene- fit Southeastern Missouri, more especially those of value in advancing the interests of Stoddard county.
Mr. Moseley was one of the prime movers in the organizing of the Bloomfield bank, which was established in 1895, with a paid-up capi- tal of $10,000, having for its officers the fol- lowing named men : George Houck, president ; James E. Boyd, vice-president ; and James B. Buck, cashier, while Mr. Moseley was one of the directorate. In 1900 John L. Buck, fa- ther of James B. Buck, succeeded Mr. Houck as president, and served until his death, in January, 1903. James B. Buck, then cashier, was elected president of the bank, and W. W. Walker was made cashier, and held the posi- tion until his death, in 1906. V. W. Moran then succeeded to the cashiership, and the stock was increased to $15,000, and in 1908 was raised to $50.000, its present capitaliza- tion, and has now deposits amounting to $390,- 000, with a surplus and undivided profits of $20,000. Mr. Moseley has served as vice-presi- dent of this institution since 1903, having then succeeded Mr. Boyd, and has contributed his full quota in making it one of the most reli- able and substantial banking houses in the county. He is also a stockholder and a di- rector of the Miller Hardware Company, which is carrying on a thriving business.
Prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Stoddard county, Mr. Moseley is an extensive landholder and stock grower, owning one farm of four hundred acres and another containing five hundred acres, both of which he leases to tenants. He devotes one farm to the breeding of fine stock, including Hereford cattle, Duroc-Jersey hogs and mules, keeping from a dozen to twenty of the latter. The other farm is mainly used for cot- ton growing. having eighty acres that yield him annually from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds an acre, the amount in money being from twelve to fifteen dollars an acre. Mr. Moseley also deals extensively in land, buving and selling large tracts.
Mr. Moseley married, October 24, 1889,
1088
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
Mai L. Bedford, daughter of Major H. H. Bedford, of Bloomfield, and they are parents of seven children, namely: Ernest, Thacher, Vivian, Thurman, Gladys, Eloise and Mabel. Fraternally Mr. Moseley is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons. Religiously the family worship at the Baptist church and contribute generously towards its support.
WILLIAM A. BURROW is a representative of the early pioneer type of Pemiscot county, Missouri, and his life in this section of the state has been filled with interesting facts con- cerning the settlement and growth of the county, particularly in the rural districts. Settling in Hayti in 1888, he bought a tract of virgin forest land, which he has since re- duced from a state of pristine wildness to a flourishing farm, such as is common to south- eastern Missouri. He has seen the country thrive and land values appreciate in a most as- tonishing manner, land which he bought twenty years ago for the merely nominal sum of one dollar per acre now commanding a price of fifty dollars the acre. He carries on a general farming business on a portion of his farm, the remainder of which he rents, not being able to work the entire tract without much additional help.
Born December 29, 1846, William A. Bur- row is the son of Alfred and Masinda (Fell) Burrow. The former was a native of Tennes- see, born there in 1803. He died in Pemiscot county, Missouri, in 1866, whence he had come with his wife and family in about 1844. He had settled here several years previously, but it was in 1844 that he located here perma- nently, and he lived on the place which he entered until his death. His wife was born in Kentucky, on January 8, 1812, and she passed away in Pemiscot county one year pre- vious to the death of her husband. Their son, William A., attended a subscription school in his boyhood, when he might be spared from his duties in connection with the regular work of his father's farm. After the death of his parents, which occurred be- fore he had reached his majority, the young man remained for a year or two with his brothers and sisters, after which he went on a homestead for a number of years. Previous to his homestead experience, however, Mr. Burrow enlisted in the Missouri State Guards in 1864 and served throughout the term of his enlistment.
Mr. Burrow has been twice married. His
first wife was Elizabeth Braun, born Febru- ary 14, 1843. They were united in marriage on the 14th of June, 1868, and her death oc- curred on July 8, 1910. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Burrow. The two eldest were twins, Margaret and Lucinda, and they married twin brothers of the name of Casey. The other children were Mary, Menissa, Mar- tha L., Adella (who died in infancy), and William, Jr. On December 30, 1910, Mr. Bur- row married Nancy Albright.
Mr. Burrow is living now on a farm he bought in 1888, paying for it the sum of one dollar an acre, his holdings amounting to a quarter section, or one hundred and sixty acres. In later years, however, he was obliged to pay a sum of $400 to heirs of the original owner of the land in order to establish a clear title to his property, but the present value of his farm is such as to render his total payment but a small item in comparison with its real worth, land in his vicinity selling freely in these days at $50 an acre, with values ever appreciating. Corn and cotton are the prin- cipal products of the soil, while he usually keeps about thirty hogs and sixty head of cat- tle on the place. On the whole, he is regarded as one of the more prosperous farmers of his district, and is a notable example of the vast earning power of consistent energy, carefully applied.
Mr. Burrow reviews in reminiscence his boyhood days in Pemiscot county on his fa- ther's farm, and the conditions then in con- trast with his present situation were indeed highly primitive. The country in the fifties was in a practically wild state, and in his recollection wild game of every variety abounded. Black bear, elk, deer and fowl of the edible variety were there in abundance and the absence of a trading post by no means inconvenienced them in the matter of obtain- ing the necessities of life. What they did not produce in the fields and gardens for the family table they were privileged to shoot at their discretion, unhampered by the modern inconveniences known as game laws. They made their own clothing and builded their furniture, rude and uncouth though it might he, but it answered their simple purpose and better was not desired. Did they need can- dles and matches? Then they made them by a simple process, inelegant but satisfactory. Heating stoves were unheard of. and even a cooking stove was a rarity in those days. Mr. Burrow has seen all these pioneer conditions superseded by modern usages and methods,
1089
HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
and has taken his place in the march of pro- paths then separated; William returned to gress, his own home and farm being a fine ex- ample of the best in modern progress.
EDWARD LEROY DANBY, although a young man, has already shown that he is possessed of no inconsiderable ability and executive force. A man in this country is judged by his friends and acquaintances according to what he ac- complishes ; in the old country people still want to know who and what a man's father was, but in Missouri, as in the other states of the Union, a man can not rest upon his fa- ther's deeds, but if he would be well thought of must himself bring things to pass. Mr. Danby, commencing his life in the busy world in connection with coopering, wandered into other avenues, but has finally returned to the business in which he started and is making rapid strides towards the top of the ladder.
Mr. Danby's birth occurred April 29, 1885, at Linwood, Michigan. His father, William, born November 24, 1858, at Vernon, Michigan, has passed his entire life up to the present time in the state of Michigan, now residing at Lansing, that state, where he is in the em- ploy of the city water works. He is well- known as a devoted member of the Methodist church, as a stanch Republican and as a mem- ber in high standing of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Maccabees. On the 16th of April, 1882, Mr. Danby was united in mar- riage to Miss Alta LeRoy, born September 10, 1865, at Brighton, Michigan, who later moved to Kawkawlin, where the wedding took place. Mrs. Danby maintains her home at Lansing, Michigan, interested in the Methodist church and in her family. She has six children,- Mande, born January 9, 1883, the wife of John Miller, of Newcastle, Henry county, In- diana; Edward LeRoy, the immediate subject of this review ; William, whose birth occurred on the 7th of July, 1887, at Linwood, Michi- gan; Carl, born March 2, 1889, residing at Lansing, in the employ of the Oldsmobile Auto factory; Sue, whose nativity occurred August 24, 1892, the wife of Arthur Jersey, of Elk City, Oklahoma; and Neil, the date of whose birth was December 9, 1896. William, the third child, received his education in the public school of Linwood, Michigan, and on its termination he worked in hoop mills in Inter- lochen and Boyne City, Michigan, then went to Mound City, where he remained for about a year and a half. Up to this period Wil- liam's movements had been identical with those of his older brother, Edward, but their
Boyne City, thence to Lansing, where he worked for the Reo Auto Company for about a year, and later to Detroit, in the employ of the Owen Auto Company. While in Detroit he was stricken with typhoid fever and con- fined to his bed for thirteen weeks. As soon as he was able to travel he went home to Lansing, remaining until he had regained his strength ; then, on the 27th of November, 1910, he came to Caruthersville, where his brother had been living for more than a year, and Mr. William Danby commenced to work for the Caruthers- ville Cooperage Company, his business being the culling of hoops. He "made good" and his advancement was rapid, he now being as- sistant foreman, under his brother Edward. William Danby, on the 4th day of August, 1909, was married to Miss Sarah Casey, daughter of Hiram C. and Anna Casey, of Cairo, Illinois. Mrs. William Danby's birth occurred November 13, 1888, in Johnson county, Illinois, where she was reared and educated, and the couple now reside at 431 Washington avenue, South Caruthersville, the husband devoting most of his time to his busi- ness. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.