History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 74

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 74

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John A. Miller was born July 26, 1847, on the old homestead. His schooling consisted of about three short terms of two and a half months each, but this short period does not represent his whole schooling, as he has ac-

quired a great deal of useful knowledge on his own account. After the war he went to school a short time and completed his arithmetical studies himself at home. His work on the home farm has been recorded, and after his marriage he built a little log house on his mother's old place and engaged in the work- ing of a part of the farm until 1876, when he removed to the farm upon which he lives at the present time. The young couple began very modestly, and made their home in a lit- tle shanty for a winter and summer. They improved their fortunes very rapidly, how- ever, and while Mr. Miller was clearing his land he built a larger house and rail fences. To the original eighty acres, which he bought in 1875, he seven years later added eighty more, and at the present time owns 160 acres, 145 of which are under cultivation. In evi- dence of the good purpose to which Mr. Mil- ler has made his improvements is the fact that whereas the land cost five dollars an acre when he bought it, it would now bring sixty dollars an acre. It is well fenced, most of the fences being of wire.

Mr. Miller laid the foundation of a happy household and congenial life companionship when, in August, 1870, he was united in marriage to Mary K. Harper, daughter of Henry and Keziah (Brown) Harper. Mrs. Miller was born three miles south of Bloom- field, September 24, 1850. Their marriage has been blessed by the birth of the follow- ing children: Linus E., who died March 7, 1878; Lorenzo, born March 7, 1873, died March 13, 1875; Edith V., born June 18, 1875, died in 1898, leaving two children, Samuel K. and Linus A., who have been reared by their grandparents and are now their useful young assistants in the work of the farm's cultivation; Eldon E., born April 30, 1881, married Myrtle Sifford, and resides on land adjoining the subject ; Eunice May, born November 3, 1883, attends the Normal School at Cape Girardeau; John E., born May 15, 1888, is now attending law school at Valparaiso, Indiana; Iva B., born May 18, 1892, is attending Normal school; and the youngest member of the family, Ogden Ray, born January 7, 1896, is at home.

Mr. Miller is a stanch Democrat and takes a great interest in public affairs. He is an active member of the General Baptist church, of Aid, Stoddard county, and he and his wife and family are held in high esteem in the community in which their interests are centered.

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JOHN TAWNEY was born in Indiana and lived in that state until he was twenty-one years old. His father was a farmer who died when John was four years old. The mother was supported by her children.

When John Tawney began his business career it was in the employment of the Hart- well Brothers' Handle Manufacturing Com- pany of Allen county, Ohio. He was mar- ried when he left his native place to go into this work. His wife was born in Whitney county, Indiana, and died in Allen county, Ohio, in 1883. The daughter whom she bore to John Tawney is now living in Mississippi. Two years after her death, he married Ida Rockhill, of Arcola, Indiana, his present wife.

After his second marriage Mr. Tawney spent twelve years in Delphos, Ohio, as a handle maker, steadily rising to better posi- tions in his work. In 1895 he went to Vin- cennes, where the headquarters of the com- pany were. Here he had charge of a gang of men, although he, himself was working, by the piece. After four years here he went to Mount Vernon, Illinois, in the interest of the same company. In Mount Vernon Mr. Tawney built and operated a factory for the company which manufactured handles and wagon stock. About this time he also built a factory in Mississippi and stayed there four months superintending it after it was put into operation.

In 1905 Mr. Tawney moved a part of his Mount Vernon plant to Lilbourn. The fac- tory here has a capacity of four thousand handles a day. The wood used is mostly hickory and the abundant timber supply of this region makes it a most desirable site for such a factory.

Mr. Tawney intends to make Lilbourn his home hereafter, and to that end he has built the finest residence in the town. In addition to being superintendent of the factory, he is president of the bank and has been ever since its organization. Another post of respon- sibility in the commercial enterprises of the town which Mr. Tawney also fills is that of president of the Building and Loan Associa- tion of the town. In city property he owns besides his residence twelve lots, some of which have buildings upon them, and has a half interest in nine other lots. He is the present city treasurer, Democratic in pol- itical bias.

Two of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Tawney, Frances and Florence, are still at

home. The son, Howard, is assistant cashier of the Bank of Lilbourn. He is married to Bertie Fisher Tawney. The other daughter is Mamie, the wife of H. C. Lee.

When John Tawney was married he was penniless and when he came to Lilbourn he had only one thousand dollars exclusive of his household furniture. What he has ac- complished and acquired in the brief period of six years evidences his business acumen and his unremitting industry.

WILLIAM H. PETTY. A well-known and highly esteemed resident of Kennett, Wil- liam H. Petty followed the profession of a teacher for several years, being very success- ful and popular as an educator, and is now serving as deputy county clerk, a position to which he was elected in the spring of 1907. A son of Charles A. Petty, he was born in Humphreys county, Tennessee, July 25, 1874, but has spent the greater part of his life in Dunklin county, Missouri.

Charles A. Petty was born and bred in Tennessee, living there until after his first marriage. In October, 1874, he came with his family to Dunklin county, Missouri, and after living in the vicinity of Hornersville two years moved to Cotton Plant. In 1883 he settled in Kennett, and for four and one- half years served as deputy sheriff under I. F. Donaldson. He subsequently bought a farm lying one and one-half miles west of Kennett, and still owns and operates it, al- though he resides in Kennett. He married first Frances Miller, who was born in Tenn- essee. She died June 17, 1890, in Missouri, leaving ten children, all but one of whom are now living. William H., of this sketch, being one of the number. He married for his second wife Mollie Baugus, of Decatur county, Tennessee, and of that union one child was born. He married for his third wife, Sally Latta, and of the three children born of their marriage two are living.

Charles A. Petty is one of the leading Democrats of this community, and from 1903 until 1907 served as associate county judge. During that period all swamp land funds were transferred to the county school fund, which was of great advantage to the public schools. He is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church, towards the support of which he is a liberal contributor, and in which he has been class leader several years.

As a boy and youth William H. Petty re-

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ceived excellent educational advantages, and after his graduation from the Cape Girar- dean Normal school taught for nine years in Dunklin county, being an instructor in the Kennett High school a part of the time. In April, 1907, Mr. Petty entered the county clerk's office as deputy, and is performing the duties devolving upon him with char- acteristic ability and faithfulness. Having never swerved from the political faith in which he was bred, Mr. Petty is a steadfast Democrat, and for two years, in 1903 and 1904, was a member of the Kennett Board of Education. He is a man of much culture, and intelligent reader, and has a choice col- lection of books in his large library. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for two years had charge of the Bible class in its Sunday school, being a most in- teresting teacher. Fraternally Mr. Petty be- longs to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows; to the Knights of Pythias; to the Woodmen of the World; and to the Tribe of Ben Hur.

Mr. Petty married, June 26, 1910, Helen May Griffin, a beautiful Kentucky girl. She is a pleasant agreeable woman, and a member of the Baptist church, in which she was reared.

JAMES L. HIGGINBOTHAM. If "biography is the home aspect of history," as Wilmott has expressed it, it is entirely within the province of true history to commemorate and perpetuate the lives and character, the achievements and honor of the illustrious sons of the state. High on the roll of those whose efforts have been an important factor in the progress and development of Southeastern Missouri appears the name of James Lawson Higginbotham, the present efficient and popu- lar incumbent of the office of mayor of Ber- nie, in Stoddard county. Mr. Higginbotham is a farmer by occupation and he is the owner of a splendid rural estate of some three hun- dred and twenty-seven acres, the same being eligibly located five miles west from Bernie.

James L. Higginbotham was born in Dun- klin county, Missouri, on the 4th of October, 1865, and he is a son of Marion Higginbo- tham, whose birth occurred in Edwards coun- ty, Illinois, whence he accompanied his par- ents to Missouri as a lad in the year 1835. Ilis parents, Lawson and Mary Higginbo- tham, located first in Dunklin county and later established their home on Crawley Ridge in Stoddard county, where they passed

the residue of their lives, the former dying in July, 1875, at the age of seventy-five years. Marion Higginbotham married Miss Agnes Riddle, a native of Tennessee, who accom- panied her parents to Missouri when she was a child of but six years of age. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Higginbotham lived in Dunklin county until 1871, in which year they came to Stoddard county, settling on the estate now owned by the subject of this review. He was engaged in agricultural pur- suits during the major portion of his active career and he was summoned to the life eter- nal in 1884, at the age of sixty-nine years. His cherished and devoted wife, who long survived him, passed into the great beyond in October, 1910, at the age of seventy-five years. Marion Higginbotham organized the first Missionary Baptist church in this section, it becoming known as the White Oak Grove church, and of it he and his wife were devout members until the time of their respective deatlıs. He was very prominent in all relig- ious movements and was a delegate to a num- ber of county and state church associations, in addition to which he was deacon in the local church. He also manifested a deep and sincere interest in all educational affairs, serving as a director of the local school board. His family consisted of two sons and two daughters, concerning whom the following brief data are here recorded,-Julia A. be- came the wife of John O. Wilson, a farmer in this county, and she died in 1910; John L. was a farmer in the vicinity of Bernie and he died in 1898, at the early age of thirty-two years; James L. is the immediate subject of this review ; and Amanda is the wife of J. P. Ward, a merchant at Bernie.

James L. Higginbotham, of this notice, was reared to the invigorating discipline of the home farm in Stoddard county, he having been six years of age at the time of his par- ents' removal hither from Dunklin county. After availing himself of the advantages af- forded in the public schools of the neighbor- hood he became interested in farming on the old homestead, which he inherited at the time of his father's death. With the passage of time he has added to the old estate until he is now the owner of a tract of three hundred and twenty-seven acres of some of the very finest land in Southeastern Missouri. In ad- dition thereto he is also the owner of con- siderable valuable property in Dunklin coun- ty. He has devoted the major portion of his time and attention thus far to diversified

IL. Higginbotham,

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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

agriculture and the raising of thoroughbred stock and for the past twenty-two years he has shipped cattle with marked success. IIe has been a very prominent factor in the drain- age and redemption of the swamp lands in Southeastern Missouri. He has been very prominent in connection with improvements in the village of Bernie, where he has erected a number of residences and business houses and where, in company with his uncle, he re- built the noted Higginbotham Block. In his political convictions he is a stalwart sup- porter of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor and he has taken an active part in local politics. In the spring of 1910 he made the race for and was elected mayor of Bernie. As head ad- ministrator of the municipal affairs of the city he is acquitting himself with all of honor and distinction and under his supervision a great many important improvements have been started. About the time he assumed the re- sponsibilities of his office concrete walks were just being introduced ; he has taken up that idea and Bernie now boasts many clean con- crete streets. He served as a member of the school board for many years, from the time he was of age until elected to the office of mayor of Bernie.

In the year 1884, at the early age of eigh- teen years, Mr. Higginbotham was united in marriage to Miss Mary Cross, also aged eigh- teen years. Mrs. Higginbotham was born and reared in Stoddard county and she is a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Jones) Cross, the father a prominent and influential farmer in this section during the greater part of his active career. Mr. and Mrs. Higgin- botham are the parents of the following chil- dren,-Harry Preston is cashier in the Bank of Bernie, Missouri; Walter Marshall is as- sistant cashier of the Bank of Bernie and is also engaged in the stock business; James Alva is attending business college at Quincy, Illinois; and Flora and Elsie Blanche remain at the parental home. In their religious faith the Higginbotham family are devout mem- bers of the Baptist church, to whose good works they are most liberal contributors of their time and means. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, which organ- ization he has represented in the county con- vention, and with the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Higginbotham is a man of high honor and notable mental caliber. The list of his per- sonal friends might almost be said to include

that of his acquaintances and they are legion, bound in no sense by party lines, religious creeds or social status. People of every di- versity of condition, position or relative im- portance, know him and, knowing him, re- spect and love him.

GEORGE H. JONES. The mercantile in- terests of Bernie have an able representative in George H. Jones, who has been engaged in business here since 1902, and who is an en- terprising and public spirited citizen. His father, William A., was born in Selma, Ala- bama, in 1848 or 1849. He was educated in the common schools, and because of his love of Southern institutions he enlisted in the Confederate army, serving under General Joseph Wheeler. He resided in Alabama for only a short time and then with his parents removed to Pensacola, Florida. He was a member of an Alabama regiment, however, for he was in the state when the first guns were fired at Sumter, and remained in the ranks until the termination of the conflict in April, 1865. Following the surrender he went to Georgetown, Kentucky, where he attended a theological seminary, a desire to enter the ministry having reached crystallization point. This was a Baptist institution. He was called to the pastorate of a church in Colum- bus, Kentucky, and there he remained for about fifteen years. There in October, 1868, he was united in marriage to Minerva Sims. Her parents were old Kentucky settlers and lived in the Blue Grass state nearly all their lives. He removed to Missouri in 1884 and previous to that time he taught school, preached, farmed, did missionary work, and later was employed to teach the school in Bloomfield, Stoddard county. Such was the strenuous life of the minister of the time and locality. In January, 1886, he removed to a farm five miles southwest of Bloomfield and lived there practically all of the time until his death, which occurred on April 6, 1905. The devoted wife and mother preceded himu to the Great Beyond, her death occurring July 30, 1896. The children of this union were Albert S., William A., George H., Peter Reuben (county clerk at Bloomfield) and James T.

George H. Jones was born October 12, 1873, at Jordan Station, Kentucky. He obtained most of his early education in his native state, subsequently attending school one year in Bloomfield after coming here with his parents. When they went out to the farm he

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attended the country schools for one year and in Dexter pursued his studies for a time. By this time he had acquired a good general edu- cation and he taught school for one year. His next business experience was in the insurance business, in which he continued for a limited period; later working on a farm and buying and selling land to good profit. His career as a business man of Bernie dates from 1902, when he engaged in his present business with his brother, Reuben, buying out his brother's partner. Reuben subsequently sold his in- terest in the store to his brother, J. T., and the Messrs. Jones continue mercantile opera- tions under the name of Jones Brothers. Their stock has been increased continually and their loyal and enthusiastic patronage with it. Mr. Jones owns other town prop- erty and also a farm of forty acres. In the store a general line of goods is handled, the same including hardware and dry goods.

Mr. Jones was married in Bernie, October 17, 1909, to Minnie Lee Fonville, daughter of W. T. Fonville, and who was born in 1885. They share their pleasant home with one son, William Jewell, born August 9, 1910. Mr. Jones is a man who takes great interest in lodge affairs. He is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows; he has for several years been past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias; he has also been for quite a period banker of the Woodmen of the World; and he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Jones attends the Baptist church and in his political affilia- tions he is a stanch supporter of the Dem- ocratie party.

FRANK M. McMULLIN. A well-known and highly esteemed citizen of Essex, F. M. Mc- Mullin has for several years been profitably engaged in general farming and stock rais- ing, owning and occupying one of the most attractive of the many beautiful rural home- steads of Stoddard county. A son of F. M. McMullin. Sr., he was born January 27, 1879, in Sikeston, Scott county, Missouri, of Irish ancestry.

F. M. MeMullin, Sr., was but a child when about a quarter of a century ago he was brought to Missouri by his father, who died within a very few years after immigrating to the United States. Left an orphan when young. he grew to manhood in Scott county, and from his youth up was engaged in agri- cultural pursuits. Ambitious and resolute, he set to work with a determination to sue-

ceed in his chosen occupation, and having bought land in Essex cleared and improved a valuable farm of two hundred and forty acres, and there resided until his death, in August, 1899, when but fifty-six years of age. A part of the town of Essex is built on that farm. He never meddled with politics, but was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, his home being the headquarters of visiting Methodist ministers, who found a warm welcome at his fireside. He married Sally Drysdale, who was born in Kentucky, and came with her parents to Mis- souri. She died several years before he did, in early womanhood. Eight children were born to their union, namely: Alma, wife of Herbert Boaz, a merchant in Parma, Mis- souri; Thomas, who died at the age of twen- ty-three years; Frank M., the special subject of this brief sketch; Hattie, wife of Charles Lisle, an attorney in Dexter, Missouri; John William, of Fornfelt, a railroad man; James engaged in mercantile pursuits at Parma ; Bettie, of Parma, formerly connected with her brother's store but now the wife of John Lee, a hardware and implement dealer of Parma; and Katie, who has attended the Cape Girardeau State Normal school, resides in Dexter and is now teaching in the Dex- ter public schools.

Since twelve years old a resident of Stod- dard county, Frank M. McMullin resided on the home farm near Essex as long as his father lived, and at his death received his share of the parental estate, of the stock, and the household goods, and two thousand dol- lars in money. In addition to the land which came to him by inheritance he bought one hundred and twenty-three and one-half acres of ajoining land near the village, and having cleared off the timber has placed the greater part of it under a good state of cul- tivation, largely increasing its value, which is now far more than quadruple the fifteen dollars an acre which he paid for it. Mr. Mc- Mullin has here erected a substantial resid- ence, good barns and outbuildings, and in addition to raising the cereals common to this section of the country is extensively engaged in stock breeding, raising and ship- ping. making a specialty of buying and sell- ing horses, cattle and mules. He breeds and raises fine saddle and driving horses, and matches roadsters and driving horses, having an extensive and lucrative business in this branch of industry. He has bought and sold several tracts of farming property,

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being successful in his numerous real-estate transactions.

Mr. McMullin married, November 20, 1900, Sally Allbright, of Bertrand, Missouri, a daughter of Joseph Allbright, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Mississippi county, and they are the parents of a bright and promising son and daughter Vivian and Marion, besides a son Francis D., who died at three years of age. Devoting his entire time to his business interests, Mr. MeMullin has kept out of politics altogether.

JESSE WALLS MCCOLLUM, engaged in the drug business in Dexter, is one of the older citizens of this locality and has been identified with its interests in a very prominent manner since the year 1853. The MeCollum family is indeed one of the best known hereabout. Jesse W. is a veteran of the Civil war, hav- ing worn the Confederate gray for four years and his experiences during the "Great Con- fliet" were often of truly thrilling interest, it being the privilege of the editors to incor- porate some of these in this review.

J. W. MeCollum was born in Union Dis- triet, South Carolina, near Union court house, September 22, 1832, and thus at the present time is nearly arrived at the four- score milestone. At the age of six years he was taken to western Tennessee by his par- ents. William and Mary (Hyatt) McCollum, and in 1853 another removal was made to Stoddard county, Missouri. The father ac- quired property of an agricultural nature four miles north of Bloomfield and there lived until his demise, in 1863, at the age of fifty- seven years. He bought an improved farm, to which he added many improvements of his own and he came to be one of the leading farmers of the county. He was also a stock speculator and drove mules and horses to southern Mississippi. He was in sympathy with the cause of the South, whose institu- tions he held dear, and he gave four sons to the Confederate army. He did not engage in public affairs, giving his whole attention to his private concerns and the rearing of his large family. His devoted wife survived him but a short time, her death occurring in 1864.

The MeCollum children consisted of the fol- lowing: Joseph C., residing on a property two and one-half miles north of Bloomfield; Jesse W .; Robert C., who was killed while performing his duties as deputy sheriff of what was then Green now Clay county. Arkansas, in 1876, and who was also a mer-

chant and postmaster; James Harvey died at Trenton, Tennessee, about the year 1901; Aaron died in a hospital at Montgomery, Ala- bama, from wounds received during the war; the four latter were all Confederate soldiers, Aaron serving in the eastern army and Jesse W., Robert C. and James Harvey in the west- ern army. A sister, Emily, married Colonel William L. Jeffreys, late of Dexter, Missouri, and she is now living with a daughter in Texas. Colonel Jeffreys is buried at Jackson, Cape Girardeau county, where he lived at the outbreak of the war. Mary, the second sister, died as a young married woman; and John J., makes his home in Western Arkansas.

To speak more fully of the military record of Jesse W. MeCollum of this review, he served as orderly sergeant in Captain Pay- ton's company organized in northern Mis- sonri, and he was with this company at the time of the termination of the war. He was also in detail service and recruited in south- ern Missouri, assisting in the recruiting of several companies. He took part in several raids, being with General Sterling Price, who commanded the district during the latter part of the war, on the famous Price raid, and he was with Marmaduke on a similar expedition. He was never wounded, but was thrice cap- tured. He was first taken at Saint Francois- ville, now Asherville, shortly before his en- listment. The story of the affair, which pos- sesses the essentials of humor, is well worth recounting at this point. Colonel Leeper, a Union commander, now living at Mill Spring, came with his men to Saint Francoisville, now Asherville, where the subject kept a small store. The soldiers ate Mr. McCollum's stock of bacon with relish, appropriated what- ever other edibles they wanted, and fed his corn to their horses. Colonel Leeper then demanded his weapons and Mr. McCollum produced in order a single barreled shot gun, a double barreled shot gun, a derringer pistol, a rifle, and finally a bow and arrow, at which Leeper's soldiers, who were interested spec- tators, set up a great shout of laughter. Mr. MeCollum was generously allowed to keep the latter weapon. The next morning Leeper ordered him to get his horse, as he must go with him as a captive to Bloomfield, and the colonel sent two soldiers with him to the pasture to catch his horse. Mr. MeCol- lum then engaged in a clever and snecessful bit of strategy. Taking his bridle and sad- dle, he told the two men to wait at the bars and said that he would try to catch the horse

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 74

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802