USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 81
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Nelson Cline was married early in life to Elizabeth MeGee, daughter of Isaac McGee, that gentleman being alive at the present time at the venerable age of ninety-six years. His mother died in 1909, when over ninety, longevity apparently being a family char- acteristic. Isaac McGee is a farmer, who came to Missouri, about the year 1847, and
Elizabeth was born while en route to Mis- souri in Tennessee. He and his wife became the parents of eight children, all of whom are living, the two sons being physicians. The subject's brother, Dr. Jesse Anderson Cline, practices at VanDuser, Scott county.
Benjamin J. Cline received his early edu- cation in the public scholls of Stoddard coun- ty and subsequently attended the Normal School at Cape Girardeau. He taught school in Stoddard county and in the meantime came to the conclusion to adopt the medical profession, for which he was fitted by nat- ural bent. His preparation for this useful work was secured in the famous old medi- cal college, the Kentucky School of Medi- cine, at Louisville, where he spent two years and one year in the medical department of the State University of Louisville. He fin- ished with two years in Barnes University of St. Louis and after this unusually thor- ough training was graduated with the class of 1907. He practiced, however, as early as 1901 on a state license. He is a constant student of the great science and finds no ef- fort too great for the keeping abreast of the constant progress in this field. He holds high prestige in Essex and its vicinity and enjoys a constantly growing practice. Dr. Cline holds membership in the Stoddard County and the Missouri State Medical As- sociation.
Dr. Cline has been twice married. In the year 1900 Miss Dona Curd, daughter of Price and Mary E. Curd, became his wife, but this admirable young woman died in 1907, leaving two daughters, Calla Opal and Alpha Bernice. In 1909 he was married to one of Essex's prominent young women, Miss Xenia Loveless, daughter of Perry Loveless, and one son, Harold Hadley, aged one year, has been born to them. Dr. Cline's frater- nal affiliation is limited to membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he holds membership in the Methodist Episco- pal church.
JOHN W. VAIL. In the material growth and prosperity of the town of Cardwell the most important single factor has been the Cardwell Stave Company, of which John W. Vail is president. This company employs about 150 men, a number that is a sufficient nucleus for a thriving village. It is the largest stave manufacturing industry, com- prising three plants, in Southeastern Mis- souri, and has contributed enormous values
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to the manufacturing assets of this region, and in preparing the country for permanent agricultural development it has also done an important work.
Up to 1896 Mr. Vail was a manufacturer of cooperage in Indiana, where he and Mr. J. E. Thomas had organized and conducted the Decatur Egg Case Company. They came to Southeastern Missouri, where they received a license to operate, and part of the factory was moved to Cardwell from In- diana. Most of the present factory has been built new, however. Mr. Vail was the prin- cipal stockholder of the four citizens of Dunklin county interested in the enterprise. For several years the factory was conducted for the manufacture of egg cases, and then . age undertakings in this region. Through the Cardwell Stave Company was organized, several corporate companies, A. V. Wills & Sons conduct a business in general drainage contracting which is one of the largest of the kind in the country, and their record of completed and successful undertakings com- prises some of the most noteworthy projects of recent years in the states of the Missis- sippi valley. and the product has since been mainly staves. The company at present consists of John W. Vail, president; his wife, E. B. Vail, and his brother, E. A. Vail. The com- pany owns several thousand acres of timber land in this vicinity, and after clearing the timber the ground is improved for farming purposes and then sold to agricultural set- tlers. This process has resulted in a large increase in the farming resources of this vicinity, and has also been a source of large profit to the company. The mills which are among the largest of the kind in the state, consume about thirty thousand feet of tim- ber daily, and the estimated output of the factory for 1911 is thirty million staves, be- sides some cases.
Out of this enterprise grew the Paragould & Memphis Railway, which, beginning as an industrial railroad, has become a general transportation line for all the tributary country. The line now extends to Manila, Arkansas, and is drawing timber from a tract of six thousand acres south of Cardwell. For the past four years there has been a steady run of timber along this line. The railroad will be extended as commercial need demands. It is now operated as a common carrier, with passenger service for the pub- lic, and the right-of-way runs through other people's lands. At the outset this road was narrow-gauge, but with the increase of busi- ness it has been standardized for general railway service.
ERNEST S. WILLS. The agricultural de- velopment of Southeastern Missouri, the his- tory of which forms an important part of this work, owes a greater debt to modern
drainage enterprise than to any other fac- tor. For many years the fertile lands of a large area were unavailable for cultivation because the facilities and enterprise were lacking to relieve them of the superfluous water. Modern capital and the combination of individual owners in co-operative under- taking have solved the problems, and the work already completed and that in prog- ress is destined to add vast riches to the po- tential wealth of this quarter of Missouri. The general history of this movement be- longs to other chapters, and attention is here called to one of the business corporations whose organization and special facilities have performed a large portion of the drain-
The original home of this important busi- ness was in Pittsfield, Pike county, Illinois. Mr. A. V. Wills, the founder of the business still a resident of Pittsfield, and for many years one of the largest farmers of that county, first got into the contracting busi- ness through his official connection as com- missioner with the construction of the orig- inal levee through Pike county along the Mississippi river. Mr. Wills and his son J. R. (now deceased) began contracting twenty- five years ago, and were joined by the other sons, W. V. and E. S. Wills, after their col- lege careers were over. In addition to their business enterprises the members of the firm are extensive farmers in Pike county, their old home, and own a section of land in Greene county, Arkansas.
The members of the firm of A. V. Wills & Sons. drainage contractors, are A. V. Wills, of Pittsfield, where the main office is located ; W. V. Wills, a resident of Beardstown, Illi- nois; and E. S. Wills, the general manager. The office for the Southeastern Missouri work is at Malden. Here also is the home of the Malden Machine Works which was incorpo- rated in 1908 with a capital of $6,300. This branch of the business comprises general ma- chine repairing, cylinder boring, electrical work and supplies, and all kinds of brass work and moulding. Mr. E. S. Wills is president and treasurer, W. V. Wills, vice
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president, and J. W. Williams, secretary, of this company. Another affiliated company is the Middle States Dredging Company, with offices at Malden, the members of which are A. V., W. V., and E. S. Wills and G. E. Myers and H. E. Gibbons. This company handles the Mississippi river work of the larger company, and Messrs. Myers and Gib- bons, both old employes of the original com- pany, have active charge of this work. An- other branch is the E. S. Wills & Company of Paragould, Arkansas, but operating inde- pendently in the Arkansas field. Lewis Mayo, an expert mechanic, is the local of- ficial of the company at Paragould.
The A. V. Wills & Company began opera- tions in Southeastern Missouri in 1902. Their first contract was for dredging ditches Nos. 1 and 2 in the Stoddard district. These were completed in eighteen months, No. 1 amounting to $20,000 and No. 2 to $80,000, the first being ten miles in length and the second about twenty-six miles. The company have since completed No. 5 in the Stoddard district, at a cost of $50,000 and No. 6 for $35,000, each being about fifteen miles long.
In New Madrid county they completed ditches Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, in district No. 7, an aggregate length of sixty-five miles, at about $200,000.
In Dunklin county they completed Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at about $50,000 each. No. 19 was finished in 1911 at a cost of $60,000, and No. 18 was completed at $12,000 and No. 10 at $15,000.
At the present writing they have in prog- ress one small, six-mile job, to cost $3,600; in Mississippi county district No. 23, of Swan Pond lateral, a $22,000 job; and a levee section of James bayou, at $37,000. They also have five machines operating in Clay and Greene counties, Arkansas, on a contract amounting to $475,000.
In Southeastern Missouri the company employ two boats with a crew of eleven men to each, and have about the same number of right-of-way workers, so that their force amounts to forty-five men.
Mr. Ernest S. Wills, the manager of these extensive drainage projects in Southeastern Missouri, was born at Pittsfield, Illinois, in 1878. He attended his home high school and the Gem City Business College, and then joined his father and brothers in the con- tracting business. He was local manager for the company in the construction of the ditch
through the Kankakee swamps of northern Indiana. This was one of the largest and most important contracts ever undertaken by the company, and was one of the pioneer undertakings on a large scale in the middle west. Mr. Wills was connected with that project five years, and then came to South- eastern Missouri on the company's first con- tract in this state. His brother W. V. was associated with him for three or four years, but since then he has been the active man- ager of all the company's operations in this field.
Mr. Wills, whose home and business head- quarters are at Malden, has a wife and three sons. He married at Pittsfield Miss Ethel Ellis, and their children are: Vernon Ellis, aged ten; Russell V., aged seven; and Ken- dall George, aged three.
ROBERT A. DOWDY. Among the early and highly honored pioneer farmers of Stoddard county, Missouri, the name of Dowdy holds a conspicuous place. Robert A. Dowdy, to whom this sketch is dedicated, is a son of Joel W. Dowdy, who came to Missouri with his parents in the year 1835, the Dowdy home having been originally in North Caro- lina. Mr. Dowdy, of this notice, is the owner of a splendid farm of 280 acres, the same be- ing eligibly located some six miles southeast of Essex and one and one-half miles distant from Frisco. He is engaged in diversified agriculture and the raising of thoroughbred stock and as a farmer and citizen is respected by all with whom he has had dealings.
A native of Stoddard county, Missouri, Robert A. Dowdy was born on the old par- ental homestead, situated two and a half miles east of Dexter, the date of his nativity being the 6th of June, 1856. He is a son of Joel W. and Jane (Norman) Dowdy, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter of whom claimed Stoddard county, Missouri, as the place of her birth. Mr. Dowdy's maternal grandparents were Levi and Fannie (Crites) Norman, both na- tives of Cape Girardeau county, Missouri. They were farming people. Joel W. Dowdy came as a young lad with his parents, Allen and Maria (Sanders) Dowdy, from his home state to Missouri in the year 1835. Joel W. Dowdy was engaged in farming operations during the greater part of his active career and he was summoned to eternal rest in the year 1866. aged about thirty-five years, his wife having preceded him to the life eternal
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by about eight years, she having died at the age of about twenty-six years. He was twice married and by his first marriage be- came the father of three children, namely,- Robert A., the immediate subject of this sketch; Alice, who is the widow of A. D. Hill and who maintains her home at Clark- ton, Missouri; and John W., who died in in- fancy. After the death of his first wife Joel W. Dowdy married Susan Hazzard, and to them were likewise horn three children, --- Henry F. resides in Texas; Joel Wesley is a clerk for William Hux, at Essex; and So- phronia F. was the wife of Jim Patrick at the time of her death, about 1889.
Robert A. Dowdy was a child of but twelve years of age at the time of his father's de- mise and thereafter he lived in the home of his paternal grandfather, Allen Dowdy, un- til he had reached the age of seventeen years. His early educational discipline consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the neighboring district schools and later he sup- plemented that training with further learn- ing in the school of experience. At the age of seventeen he hired out as a farm hand and on the 14th of February, 1874, he was
married. After that important event he made a living for his family by working at various odd jobs. For a time he cut cord- wood, later was employed on a railroad and eventually turned his attention to farming on a rented estate. His first purchase of land was in 1886, this representing a small farm two and a half miles east of Dexter. In 1890 he bought eighty acres of land six miles southeast of Essex, thus forming the nucleus of his present fine rural estate. For this tract he paid the sum of twelve hundred dollars and with the passage of time he has continued to add to his original farm until he is now the possessor of 280 acres of some of the very finest land in the entire county. For his second eighty acres he paid another twelve hundred dollars and later he paid four hundred dollars for a tract of forty acres. Then he paid twelve hundred dol- lars for a tract of forty acres and eventually bought another tract of forty acres, paying one thousand dollars for it. At the time of his arrival in Stoddard county any of his land could have been had at the merely nom- inal price of $2.50 or $3.00 per acre. When he first located on his present farm, some twenty years ago, only 65 acres of his land was under cultivation. In 1912 he has 220 acres improved and well tilled. He devotes
his attention to growing wheat, cotton and corn and in connection with stock-raising makes a specialty of mules, hogs and cattle. His modern and substantial buildings, lo- cated in the midst of finely kept fields, are the best indication of the thrift and industry of the practical owner. Mr. Dowdy has al- ways figured prominently in all matters pro- jected for the improvement of the community in which he resides, having helped to make all the line roads and having exerted him- self in every respect for the development of this section of the state. Mr. Dowdy re- lates many interesting incidents in connec- tion with the wild game that abounded in this county while he was still a boy. Wild turkeys and deer were extremely common and he killed a number of deer and much other game as a young man.
On the 14th of February, 1874, Mr. Dowdy was united in marriage to Miss Martha A. Hall, who was born and reared in Wayne and Hamilton counties, Illinois, and who is a daughter of Henry and Melinda (Locke) Hall. Her father was a native of the state of Illinois, and was killed in the Civil war, being a Federal soldier. Mrs. Dowdy ac- companied her mother and step-father to Missouri, arriving on Christmas day, 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Dowdy became the parents of nine children, four of whom are deceased : Marion F. died November 14, 1908, at the age of twenty-four years. One daughter, Birdie M., died at fifteen years of age, July 5, 1893: Myrtie Lee died when nine years old, April 3, 1899; and Lura died in infancy, January 31, 1892. Concerning the five chil- dred who are living the following brief data are here incorporated,-John W. married Miss Florence A. Warren, and they make their home on the old Dowdy estate; Ida is the wife of Levi Boyd, residing on the Dowdy farm; Nancy A. married Jesse Cline, and they also reside on the farm; Annie M. is the wife of W. W. Snider, farmers here; and Lillie Estelle remains at home. In their religious faith the Dowdy family are devout members of the General Baptist church and and they are very popular factors in con- nection with the best social affairs of their home community. Mr. Dowdy is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Masonic Lodge No. 278, of Essex, Missouri.
In his political affiliations Mr. Dowdy ac- cords an uncomprimising allegiance to the principles and policies promulgated by the Democratic party and while he has never
John RBuck
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been desirous of public office of any descrip- tion he has ever given evidence of loyalty and public spirit of the most insistent order. He is deeply interested in educational affairs and has been president of the local school board for the past fifteen years. He is a man of fine mentality and unquestioned in- tegrity and in all the relations of life he has so conducted himself as to command the un- qualified confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
JOHN L. BUCK. Among the earlier settlers of Stoddard county were many men of per- sistent purpose and resolute spirit who de- voted their energies to the upbuilding of the new country in which they were located, be- coming actively identified with the establish- ment of industrial and business enterprises, prominent among the number having been the late John L. Buck, of Bloomfield, Missouri, a successful merchant and a leading citizen. A native of North Carolina, he was born in October, 1830, a son of Bryant and Selina (Moore) Buck. In 1836 his mother died in Lauderdale county, Tennessee, whither the family had removed in 1832, and the father in 1843 came with his children to Scott county, Missouri, stopping a short time en route in Illinois, and there his death occurred in 1844. To him and his wife five children were born, of whom John L. was the last sur- vivor.
John L. Buck first attended school in Lau- derdale county, Tennessee, from there coming with the family to Scott county, Missouri, in 1843. Locating in Bloomfield, Stoddard county, in 1848, he worked at the saddler's trade with Joel B. Kesner two years, and from 1851 until 1856 clerked in the general store belonging to Daniel B. Miller. Then, in company with his father-in-law, Henry Mil- ler, he sold goods at Spring Hill for three vears, and in 1859 opened a store in Bloom- field. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war he closed out his mercantile business and for a few months was assistant commissary in General Jeff Thompson's militia. At the close of the war the firm of Miller & Buck resumed business, and continued until 1872, when Mr. Miller died, and Mr. Buck bought out the interests of the Miller heirs. A few years later, James E. Boyd was admitted to partnership with Mr. Buck, and the firm, which became one of the leading mercantile establishments of the place, carried on a thriv- ing business for many years, dissolving by
mutual consent in 1901. After the dissolu- tion of the firm of James E. Boyd & Company, Mr. Buck was instrumental in the founding of the Buck Store Company, of which he was president until his death, on January 25, 1903. Mr. Buck was ever interested in the promotion of public interests, and served in various official positons during his life in Bloomfield. He was at one time a member of the town council, and has given excellent serv- ice as a member of the school board of Bloomfield, while for twelve years he served as treasurer of Stoddard county, handling the duties of his position in a manner reflecting credit upon himself and his fellow townsmen.
Mr. Buck was three times married. He first married Frances Miller, and of their six chil- dren but one is now living. His second wife was Laura Boyd, and of this marriage six children were born, of which number four still survive. They are: Laura, Ada, Charles and James B. To Mr. Buck and his third wife, whose maiden name was Lizzie Miller, one child was born,-John Thomas, who died at the age of ten years.
JAMES B. BUCK. A native born citizen of Bloomfield, James B. Buck was born Febru- ary 28, 1872. He is the son of John L. and Laura (Boyd) Buck. As a boy and youth James Buck received superior educational advantages, when his high school days were over studying for three years in the Univer- sity of Illinois, at Urbana, and at the Uni- versity of Missouri, in Columbia. He began his active business career as a hook-keeper, and at the organization of the Buck Store Company in 1901 he was appointed secretary of the new concern. This company which is one of the fine mercantile establishments of Bloomfield, has a large double store building, finely equipped with all modern improve- ments, and they conduct a regular depart- ment store business, handling almost every- thing in the mercantile line with the excep- tion of hardware and drugs. It is particu- larly prosperous, employing on an average fifteen clerks, and doing an annual business of about one hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. Upon the death of his father, John L. Buck, in 1903, James B. Buck succeeded to the presidency of the firm, while his brother. Charles Buck, was made secretary to fill his place, and Bert Smith was elected vice-presi- dent and general manager.
It is generally conceded that Mr. Buck is a man of exceptional ability and rare business
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discrimination. In addition to handling the business of the Buck Store Company in a capable and profitable manner he has been able to give a share of his attention to mat- ters outside the store, and he has accumulated a considerable property in and about Bloom- field. He is the owner of three thousand acres of valuable farm lands, in three tracts, and gives some attention to the product of hay and grains and to the breeding of blooded stock. Aberdeen-Angus and Duroc Jersey and Berkshire hogs are the breeds that he most favors and he has enjoyed a fine success thus far with his farming venture. He conducts his farming operations on a lease basis, he being a partner with his tenants.
Mr. Buck is secretary of the Buck & Toole Milling Company of Bloomfield; he is presi- dent of the Miller Hardware Company, a thriving concern which carries a stock of twenty thousand dollars and which holds an ever increasing trade; he is a stockholder in the Bloomfield Electric Light Plant; and is vice-president of the Tiller Lumber Com- pany, which has yards at Bloomfield, man- aged by J. E. Tiller, and a mill at Clarkton, Missouri, under the management of W. F. Tiller. He holds an interest in the Dexter Lumber Company, and is vice president of that firm. Mr. Buck is president of the Bloomfield Bank, of which he was one of the organizers in 1895, and its first cashier. He filled that position until the death of his father (who was president of the bank) in 1903. He was elected to his father's posi- tion then, which he has held ever since, and it is safe to say that much of the prosperity and growth of the bank has been directly due to the wisdom and foresight of its president.
In 1898 Mr. Buck was united in marriage with Nina Duncan, of Lexington, Missouri, and of their union three children have been born,-James B., Jr., Carleton and Cather- ine.
TIMOTHY DORRIS. Especially worthy of mention in this biographical volume is Tim- othy Dorris, of Hayti, a substantial, prosper- ous and highly respected citizen who has been associated with the commercial and in- dustrial interests of Pemiscot county for forty-five years or more, during which time he has ever evinced a warm interest in its progress and improvement. He was horn in Harrisburg. Saline county, Illinois, Decem- ber 4, 1842, a son of Andrew and Harriet (Gaskin) Dorris, natives of Tennessee.
For a short time in his boyhood days Tim- othy Dorris attended a subscription school in his native town, although he spent many more hours in assisting his father in the labors at- tendant upon an agricultural life. When twenty years of age he began clerking in a general store, continuing, however, to reside with his parents during the ensuing three years. In 1866, responding to the lure of the "Wild West," he migrated to Pemiscot county, Missouri, on November 19 of that year, locating at the old county seat, Gay- oso, where he continued his residence for upwards of thirty years. In 1867 he em- barked in the saloon and fur business, indus- tries with which he was identified for a brief period in Illinois, as a buyer and seller of furs receiving an annual profit of thirteen hundred dollars for the first thirteen years, buying at times as many as seven thousand skins a day. He also dealt in dry goods and groceries in Gayoso, carrying on a substan- tial mercantile trade in that line and build- ing up a good business, also, as a dealer in hunters' and trappers' supplies.
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